Sunday Live - Q&A With Eric Ritvo, New CEO Of Dreamer Designs

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00][music] [music] >> Speaking of diamonds, all things diamond painting, >> [music] >> square or round, I'm glad you're all around.

[00:00:16]Grab your putty, grab your wax, get ready to sit back and relax. Don't see a single, [music] whatever your name is. Here is your host, a guy named Rich.

[00:00:29]>> [music] >> Well, hello everyone. Happy Sunday.

[00:00:35]Welcome on in.

[00:00:37]Um exciting day, exciting day. Uh I've I've been watching the chat here and uh uh everyone's very excited uh to talk to my guest. You're here for my guest today.

[00:00:49]Um I have Eric uh Rickfo from the new uh CEO of Dreamer Designs.

[00:00:56]Um and uh very excited to uh get to know a little bit about him, uh his background, and a little bit about what um his uh his plans are, maybe a little bit, nothing concrete, of course, but just uh thoughts and stuff on on diamond painting in general.

[00:01:14]Um before I bring Eric on, uh he the Dreamer Designs has been doing a nice job at giving some updates as far as Eric coming on board.

[00:01:23]And some of the challenges that um many of us have contacted Dreamer about drills and stuff like that. They've done a really good job at keeping folks updated as far as what is happening um to sort of address those concerns. So, one of the things that Eric just did was he went to their uh uh factory in China. Um so, I thought maybe I'm going to go ahead and just is it two two-minute video or something? I'm going to share that with you guys in case you didn't see it, and then we'll talk to Eric. So, let me go ahead and switch this over.

[00:02:09]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Okay, not sure about why that cut off suddenly, but I'm going to go ahead and bring on our guest. Everyone, I introduce you, like to introduce Eric Rickbo from Dreamer Designs.

[00:04:54]I can get the layout here. Hi, Eric.

[00:04:57]Hey, everybody. Hey, Rich. Thanks for having me. Thank you for taking the time to do this. This means a lot to the the community in general, I know.

[00:05:08]And [clears throat] so, just to give everybody a little bit of a background, I did go through call us the Q&A, right? And I did go through the comments that the community at large were making on the Dreamer Designs posts, as well as I opened it up to the my channel members. I asked them if they had any specific questions. And so, I'm going to go through those.

[00:05:34]Obviously, if there's any questions, you can pop them in the chat. If we get to them, I certainly can do that, or I can send them to Eric afterwards and see if it's something he wants to um uh address afterwards. So, Eric, how are you doing today? You were you were away for the weekend, right? Yeah, we just got the family and I, we were up in the mountains. My kids attend a YMCA camp and because it's in the mountains at the end of the season, they have to get everything ready. So, my daughter was painting barns, my son and I were clearing trees.

[00:06:07]Dalio was having a blast with Rebecca.

[00:06:09]It just it was wonderful. So, yeah, and I'm here now and I'm very pleased to be here. Thank you for having me. The video reminds me how much I talk with my hands. I'm going to try not to do that.

[00:06:19]I'm sorry. You're good to go. You're in good company here.

[00:06:24]And so so Eric, um, let's let's start at the beginning. So, you've been with Dreamer Designs since October 1st.

[00:06:37]October 1st. And tell me a little bit about your background and sort of what caught your eye about Dreamer Designs that got you interested in pursuing them. Sure, no problem. So, my background is as an entrepreneur. I turned my an entrepreneur basically just have an idea that you can do something a little bit better than what's already out there. This was after 12 years working as a corporate attorney. I'm now a recovering attorney. Every day gets much much better.

[00:07:10]And so after I was an attorney, I actually my first venture was a wine company. Obviously in the heart of wine country, Boston, Massachusetts. I think that's funny.

[00:07:20]It's weird making jokes when no one can laugh back. So, I'm going to just try to stop.

[00:07:24]And then after I did the Richer Pour Wine Company with my partner Dave, bounced around Boston startup scene in a couple hospitality ventures, moved out to Colorado with my wife where she's from to raise our family. I'm greeting you all from Denver right now.

[00:07:40]And did some stuff here and then I've always wanted to do entrepreneurship by acquisition. I've founded companies before richer poor and then there was Ritchey vest which was a friends and family capital raising focusing on multi family.

[00:07:56]But I always wanted to do entrepreneurship by acquisition. So in 2025 I started hunting and looking actively for a company and then Dreamer Designs caught my eye because uh first of all the it's really just the community honestly. It was it was a company that grew out of a community of supportive people. If you're in our private Facebook group it's amazing watching everyone come together. So Dreamer Designs caught my eye because it was a niche product and in a growing niche which is wonderful. I saw a study that says diamond painting uh will increase 5% year-over-year as an industry uh and we've we've rapidly exceeded that as an industry and I'm a cheerleader for all of my friendly rivals. I hope everybody does well.

[00:08:43]And so Dreamer Designs appealed to me because there were some processes that made sense. Brandon as a founder and as an individual couldn't be uh better honestly. I couldn't have asked for more for somebody who cared about the company and its future and he worked actively with me during my training from October 1 through end of year Q1 I mean Q4 is always super busy.

[00:09:06]He then watched me uh in Q1 as I was taking the reins uh from him real I mean we were just transitioning and doing things together. And so I like the community. I like the founder. I like the company. I like the numbers uh and I liked that it also had art to it. Uh art's always been something that my family has uh been interested in and you should see some of the paintings that my parents and grandparents had collected over the years and yeah that takes it. I'm speaking too much. I'll try to shorten it. No that's all right. It's a tells you how tells us how you got here. So, um so um you um are not a diamond painter. You made that very clear when we were talking before. You're like, "I'm learning. I'm learning." So, tell me a little bit about um when you went to China, first of all, you asked Brandon to go with you. Correct. Correct. And sort of the the from what I understand from reading your socials is that the point was to go and talk about some of the the challenges and things like that, but it was also your introduction to sort of how diamond paintings are made and what what happens with them and stuff like that. Tell me a little bit about your visit to China. So, the main purpose was to see that just learn how everything is created and to to introduce myself to the family that owns the factory that Brandon had worked with since the company began. And so, relationship building because I always like to meet people or talk to them or if I meet them if I can, talk to them. Zoom is better than a call at times. So, I went to China. Brandon was with me. That was something I started talking about with him before we even closed the deal.

[00:10:52]And it was there were so many things about the visit that stood out to me.

[00:10:57]First off, uh the family, how involved the family is that owns it in every aspect of the business. Two, as you saw in the video, the amount of personal touch that goes into every Dreamer Design kit. They are hand rolled, hand put a ribbon on, put them in the package. Someone's overseeing every step of the operation. And and I kind of assumed, because I'd never been to China or seen a factory before, there was all machines. Just plugging a file, get it going, come back later, all of a sudden you've got your boxes. So, there was that. We did have an opportunity to talk about some of the concerns.

[00:11:33]I wouldn't want to waste that opportunity being able to discuss things in person. And I was able to find things out. For example, why our overseas kits come in ziplock bags versus the ribbon that our inventory does. And that And that is based on how many we produce at a time, in case anyone's interested. So, it was a It was a wonderful visit. I'd never been to China before. I was impressed by the fact that I met a mother who's been working there for 12, 15 years, and now her children were right next to her doing a similar task.

[00:12:05]And it's just it is wonderful that it's a family-owned business, because I look at my business as a family-owned business. My kids have been eagerly trying to start designing kits for everybody. And maybe we'll get there someday.

[00:12:19]Nice. Nice. Excellent. So, um Yeah, one of the things that you'd mentioned was the amount of manual Mhm.

[00:12:27]interaction it is in the production of of diamond painting.

[00:12:31]Um other than that, what was the the the the coolest thing or the the most astonishing thing that you you saw there?

[00:12:39]The most astonishing thing overall was just the factory in it to it in its entirety, and the way that the workers are treated, which is well.

[00:12:51]They're treated very well.

[00:12:52]The family has taken the time to on the roof You saw at the end of the video I was walking in some gardens. That's on the roof of the warehouse. Oh, really?

[00:13:00]Many of the employees can go up there at any point in time to relax. And there's a little pond, and they've got a gazebo.

[00:13:05]So, the way the workers were so enthusiastic about working at the factory, that was the first thing that impressed me. The second thing that impressed me was how the adhesive is applied.

[00:13:19]I had no idea that it was gentleman back and forth with a big wooden I I know what to call it.

[00:13:26]But you saw it. It's so that was remarkable to me.

[00:13:30]Next just the sheer volume of drills that are in the warehouse to produce all of our kits.

[00:13:39]I it just I knew it was going to be a lot but it still just blew me away. I could just walk down the aisle. So those are the top three things that that hit me from the visit. Okay. All right. Um so what changes or or initiatives have you put in place sort of just in since the beginning of the year since you really sort of took the helm?

[00:14:02]What type of things have been going on?

[00:14:03]So the first thing that happened behind the scenes is how we license images and how we store them and how we're interacting with our artists and licensing partners.

[00:14:14]Brandon used to do all of the licensing on his own. So all the images that you've seen prior to October 1 were licensed by Brandon and many of the ones through Q4 as well actually.

[00:14:25]I realized early on that my taste shouldn't be the company's taste.

[00:14:31]Just as an aside every week we release eight images on the weekend four on Saturday four on Sunday and I always with my family guess which one we think is the top seller. Without a doubt I constantly am fourth place. I always am choosing the wrong one. So I didn't want my taste to be for the one that was licensing all the images. We've created a group it's a you could call it a licensing division. I call them the pixel patrol. It's three women who have they find the images reach out make sure the licenses are signed and stored.

[00:15:04]We've also initiated a process where we can release images back to artists if we're not going to produce them.

[00:15:11]There's no reason we should have them if we're not going to put them into production. So we started doing that. So that's one thing we started doing before the year.

[00:15:20]The second thing is we're rebuilding the house, so to speak. Uh the website was built about 5-6 years. It's been customized along the way. Shopify now has new features. We use Shopify.

[00:15:32]And I've got a company working to redo the website, and we hope to launch that towards the end of the year.

[00:15:38]Uh another change is the logo. Uh we gave a preview of that. Our community has very strong feelings about that. Uh I liked the feedback. We've gone back to the drawing board for some of the aspects of that, and when we release it, hopefully people respond. I also know you can't please everybody. So, you know, those are the three main things since the beginning of the year. Um there's a lot of little things as well, but those are the top three. Okay.

[00:16:04]All right. Um so, in talking about some of the the challenges and what you you know, talked to a little bit uh at the factory about and whatnot.

[00:16:15]What are some things about um like I know the the challenges have been the the the darker drills, the three times.

[00:16:23]Um what what was what I saw you post something out there, but I don't know that everyone saw it. Can you explain sort of what the outcome is or the right now what the status is? Sure. So, as a little bit of background, we were getting a lot of very strong negative feedback that our three times the darker drills were various words I don't feel the need to repeat, but everyone was kind of starting to hate them. So, we had a long discussion with uh the factory and the supplier. Uh unfortunately, Dreamer Designs is not yet large enough that we can create our own drills and and have the whole process done from start to finish. So, we had to work with our supplier, and what we discovered is that all the molds that they were using to create the darker drills were not brand new fresh molds, or they were being reused too many times. And so, we've we talked to them and we've put an end to that and they understand why. And so when it comes to the 310s and the use of the molds, we now have a standard with our supplier to make sure that everything comes out A plus, so to speak. So that was one of the main challenges that we had that we had to discuss uh with our factory. Um so thanks for bringing that up. Happy to talk about >> Okay.

[00:17:40]Okay. Excellent. So work in progress, but at least everyone's working towards a solution of some sort.

[00:17:45]>> as much a work in progress as all the ones that we are getting now should be up to standard. That was a pretty easy fix saying, "Stop reusing the molds, please, because you're giving us horrible product." Yeah. And you know, there's still there still are old kits that may have a problem. It was only 5% of the drills was the error rate that they told us.

[00:18:07]However, 5% is way too much. I mean, I my goal is 0% and perfection. And when we fall short, I want to make sure we know why and what to do better next time. Sure. Sure. Okay. Um and uh another uh cuz I would I know I was uh hosting an event at the time and there was uh a lot of darker drills that we're having problems with. So obviously that's a a known um issue now, especially with your older kits. So customer service is on top of it getting people replacements, things like that in a timely fashion. Yep.

[00:18:40]Yeah. That's just email us if you need any extra drills. We're happy to send them. We have them stateside, so we'll drop them in the mail and they'll get to you pretty quickly. Okay, you mentioned stateside. So that I saw a question uh come up here. Can you help us understand why are what's the why and what's the difference obvious than the obvious between the US kits and the the overseas kits and is there any plans to change any of that?

[00:19:10]Uh there are some changes that are underway we did quietly. So, the main difference is size. Overseas kits are smaller, which allows shipping to be reasonable. Uh, all shipping costs these days are going up. Uh, gas prices and we know what's going on in the world. So, typically the overseas collection was the smaller kits and mini kits being shipped directly from China. The ones in the US were the larger format and the larger images. And for those we need to do what every other retail company does, produce them in advance, uh, have them created, manufactured, shipped, stored, and then they're ready to be picked and packed and sold. So, those are the main differences.

[00:19:51]I did also realize it didn't make much sense for us to only send mini kits from abroad and medium kits from abroad. So, we're in the process right now of bringing a bunch of, uh, I think it's 10 initial popular designs that we've released before, uh, as a new a release from the US collection in a medium size. We definitely have our mini kits in over here in the states as well.

[00:20:17]And so, those are the those are the main differences. Uh, in terms of why everything is in two places, it comes down to cost and competition. Uh, this I didn't create the company, obviously, but everyone seems to manufacture all of their diamond art painting in China.

[00:20:32]Yep. And, you know, would I love to have it nearshore or onshore? Absolutely, but until costs adjust, this is the world we live in. Sure.

[00:20:42]Sure. Um, and I'm assuming that when, cuz I know when you order, it has to be separate orders because they're coming from two different inventory Correct. areas. Yes.

[00:20:54]Now, in the states, so for Dreamer Designs used to be based in Canada, correct? Yes. And now you're in Denver.

[00:21:01]Yes. How many warehouses do you have in the US? We have two warehouses, one in the West Coast in Nevada, the other outside of Chicago. We have We are in the process working with our logistics provider to determine if we need two different warehouses or we could just consolidate in the middle of the country. They're running an analysis based on uh where most of our packages are shipped. 27% go to the Midwest. I found that quite interesting. So, there may be some consolidation and we're looking to make sure that that won't increase delivery times unnecessarily because I mean, we live in a world of instant gratification and I know the minute I order something, I'm expecting it to show up at my door. Yes. And I don't want to start delaying things just to consolidate, but I think it's going to happen. Okay.

[00:21:50]Um and earlier you had also mentioned the importance of licensed artwork and that your your your stable of artists uh has some heavy hitters out there. You know, Hannah Lynn, uh Curtis Rykovich is a big one uh for Dreamer Designs, uh Romance Dominic Davison, Amy Stewart.

[00:22:10]Yep. What I'm assuming you're constantly looking for new artists, things like that. Is there anything that you see as maybe not a gap, but something that it like a type of artwork that maybe Dreamer Designs doesn't have today that you'd like to maybe see tomorrow.

[00:22:28]So, one of the pieces of feedback that we've learned as we started talking with our community is some people love diamond art painting, but the designs aren't what they would like to see on their walls.

[00:22:43]And so, we are trying to expand the realm of artists that we can work with.

[00:22:49]Uh we're we're doing that specifically with a nod towards artists that create with ink or digital, not using AI except as a tool to assist. Uh there's been a lot of discussion around how much AI is used across the industry and with us specifically.

[00:23:06]So, we are looking we just want to expand. Uh, we want to be a home for all artists. There is a definite aesthetic and style that Brandon and the community, uh, loves and we're not going to get rid of that at all, but I do think there are other pieces of artwork that would lend itself well to diamond art painting. And I'm not talking about licensing things like Marvel or Disney or other famous characters. I think other companies do that extremely well and I applaud them and hope they continue to do that. Uh, we're just looking for additional styles because there are more styles of artists and, uh, we're looking the more that we can do the better for everybody. Okay.

[00:23:48]Um, and there also seems to be and I don't know if you have any insight into this and if not, that's fine, but the one of the questions that I've seen come up a number of times is there seems to be some very standard sizes that Dreamer Designs canvases come in. 60 by 80 or 80 by 60 is like you're that's the chances are where you're going. Now, this one is Dreamer Designs. This is my last completion with Dreamer. Clearly not a 60 by 80.

[00:24:10]Um, so there is others out there, but is there a specific reason that you have a majority of your paintings in set sizes? Is it because they fit the box? I mean, is it It's not so much that it fits the box, it's that when the images come in, we need to adjust them to some extent. 60 by 80 tends to be the easiest cropping while maintaining the artist's original vision. Okay. Uh, one of the things we hope to start doing is asking the artists to start helping with the cropping and sizing.

[00:24:44]Uh, I've come to realize, uh, just by looking around the industry that people very much like large canvases and even larger and they like to go big or and that's great. Uh, we, you know, if it seems like most of the stuff between Q4 and now uh, was 40 by 40 coming out of overseas or 60 by 80 and 80 by 60.

[00:25:09]Candidly, that's more of a function of humans than anything else because if it ain't broke, don't fix it and I was really learning on the fly. Now, I've got a little more experience understanding that people would like a 60 by 100 or vice versa. Or and we can actually adjust to other centimeters as long as, you know, it's a it's a round number. On the custom kit size, we've done a variety of sizes for people cuz those are one-offs and we can make them much larger and smaller.

[00:25:38]Right. Um, I'm the the the cockles of my heart are warming. I'm seeing comments from people saying the bigger the better. They love the go bigger go home.

[00:25:47]They love the the big canvases cuz I do love the big canvases. You need to have the pallet cleanser uh, in between but I do like the the bigger ones. Um, so uh, one of the other things that I think you'd mentioned before when we we spoke was um, and this leads to a a question that came up here. You were sort of I don't know if I was surprised but the number of guys who diamond paint.

[00:26:15]Yeah, I I am surprised that the makeup of the community, uh, the the the fact that it is a majority women but there's also a nice small pack of men who love to do it.

[00:26:25]Yeah.

[00:26:26]>> I wish I had more time to get into it myself. Uh, I need to I I need to do some minis, honestly. That that's where I should probably start. It's a it would be a gateway entry point. Uh, I am surprised at the addictive nature of it in a positive way. I and I don't know why I was surprised by that because everything that anyone's interested in you can always go deep in, especially nowadays, uh, whether it's movies or music or artwork or books. I mean, if you have a favorite artist, chances are you can email him or her or find an AMA with him or her at some point. So, uh, the community and the diverse nature of it, uh, I don't know why it surprised me, but it did and I love it and we're trying to make sure that every there's something for everybody. You know, getting back to your question about a different style of artwork. Um, and so that that's what we're trying to do.

[00:27:19]Okay. Yeah. And I think it's it's great that you're looking at uh, involving the artists and things like that and because not every um, not every image is uh, going to fit a 60 by 80 and a crop is maybe going to shorten it, you know, shorten lessen the impact maybe of the art. Um, so I'm I'm glad to see uh, there's a lot of comments coming in about uh, comments and or uh, sizing and stuff like that.

[00:27:44]Um, let's see. One of the uh, so there's two two things that came up here. Just see if if any of this rings a bell with you. Um, max colors and old old masters. Any uh, max color being kits that are over 100 colors?

[00:28:00]And then old masters being like the Van Gogh's, the the the um, things that are in public domain uh, that are you don't need to license because the person's been dead for 70 something odd years. I think it's like 1930s something, 31. Um, any any of that ring a bell? Any of that uh, come up in conversations? A little bit. Part [snorts] of the issues with the max colors candidly comes down to symbols.

[00:28:26]You know, there's 400 plus DMC's and there's only so many symbols that can be created to match up.

[00:28:33]I think we always sort of average around 60 to 70 at most. And I'll I'll be candid with you. I haven't actually heard of more than 100 until this moment. So, I look forward to tomorrow asking my team about it. Um, in terms of masters and other works in the public domain, maybe uh what I thought you meant by masters is are we going to remaster some of our popular images? There's a lot of discussion out there and other companies who, you know, our kits are, you know, 35 normal drills, two ABs, and two dreamer dusts. And people actually really want more sparkles. And so we're trying to figure out a way to bring that into our process. And I, you know, either for new designs or candidly bring out some of the old ones. Now, when we bring out an old one, there may be a licenser issue, and the artist may or may not agree, and there's a, you know, there's a whole process. I can't just say yes, Curtis, we're going to do six of yours, and oh, we don't have the licenser. So there there are steps to get there, but it's one of those things I want to get there for because people already want it. And there's no reason not to give the people what they want.

[00:29:39]And I'd love to do that. It's why we've started changing the way that we we that we have changed the way that we restock images. Say that 10 times fast.

[00:29:51]Um uh do Should I talk about restocks? I think that's >> Yes, please talk about it. It's a hot hot topic, hot topic. It's a hot topic, hot topic. Thank you for going there.

[00:30:00]Okay. So, one of the things we also started quietly doing is increasing the frequency of our restocks. We have started placing orders every other month so that we can start releasing either every other month or throughout the year at different times.

[00:30:17]We're trying to figure out if I can create restock Thursdays, which would be the same day every month where you know a restock is coming. Uh the images that we are restock we have we've got two volunteer moderators within our group, and they've done polls. So we've made sure that the winners of those are coming out. But we want to be able to restock the images uh for everybody. We don't yet do pre-orders. We're thinking about maybe doing that. We're also finding out if we can order fewer because there are some It's called MOQ.

[00:30:48]Uh not to get too inside baseball, MOQ stands for minimum order quantity.

[00:30:53]And the death of all retail companies is having extra inventory you can't sell.

[00:30:57]So, there's a little bit of a game there.

[00:31:00]Uh but we do want to do more restocks and we are doing more restocks. The current order is going to land in our warehouse next week. Sorry, the week after Memorial Day. And we would And we intend to start releasing those in June.

[00:31:12]Probably, don't hold me to this, don't get mad at me, about five to six a week uh or five to six every other week. Um and it's it's good for everybody. I mean, the the the community wants it, the artists love the additional sales. I love seeing happy people. There's no reason not to do more restocks uh from my perspective if people want them. Yeah. Yeah, cuz I know uh personally my wish list I've had out there, there's only four images on it, but they've been out there for some time. So, it'd be great to to see some of those um coming back in. And we're looking at the wish list. We are we are That's not just a click and no one reviews it. No, we're actually looking at the the the cumulative wish list as part of our orders. And I think our last restock had 35 images in it or 36. So, I didn't know that you guys could even look at that. That's really interesting.

[00:32:04]That's good nice that you're doing that.

[00:32:06]Um you know, some of the comments are coming in and uh they're they're saying that it's great seeing first of all seeing someone from uh a larger DP company coming out and talking to the community, getting involved in the community, being visible, um you know, uh and and I you know, one of the things people kept asking me prior to this, like, "Are you nervous? Are you nervous?" I'm like, "Yeah, but Eric is a really nice guy.

[00:32:32]And I I he does I don't think there's going to be any like problems here. And if there is, you know, we're just going to work through it. But, um one of the things that you mentioned is community, and you have actually been calling, reaching out to people in your community, right? Tell me a little bit about that.

[00:32:50]>> Yeah. So, uh I have a mentor, uh gentleman I used to work with at one of at one of my prior lives, uh prior my prior work lives.

[00:32:59]And I was talking to him generally because at the end of Q4, it occurred to me that we had a really nice Q4, but I had no idea why.

[00:33:09]And you can't run a company that has a community without understanding your community. So, Mark said, "Why don't you pick up the phone and call two people a week? You're not that busy yet." And I smiled.

[00:33:24]First, I liked the comment from Mark.

[00:33:26]It's And then I was like, "This is a great idea." So, uh we just two people every week, my my assistant, she finds them. Uh one of them tends to be a recent purchaser within the past month. Another one tends to be a long-time fan. And those conversations range anywhere from a voicemail and a follow-up email to the longest one I think was 56 minutes. Um which, by the way, is the first time I heard that people hated our 310s.

[00:33:51]Uh and then I and I started seeing the comments. I thought, "Oh, that Oh, yeah, that was you know, that woman from Ohio."

[00:33:57]I don't think you can run a company correctly if you don't talk to the people who use your products.

[00:34:07]And I'm a people person. I'm sometimes too much of a people pleaser as well.

[00:34:13]But, it's conversations like this with you, Rich. We had a good pre-interview, and I learned some stuff out of that as well. But, every time I speak with an actual customer, I hear something. And it's, "Why can't I order from the overseas and USA collection and and pay one shipping price?" And I'm I'm able to explain things like that. And other times, you know, people want to know why certain artists are no longer with us.

[00:34:38]And then I've had so many different suggestions.

[00:34:41]We're in the process of redoing our trays a little bit based on the feedback that I've heard, the trays that are included. So, I like interacting with the community. I am probably a little too addicted to the Facebook group and I've seen so many comments. And And the other thing that just hits me about the community is how supportive people are with strangers.

[00:35:02]There was a woman named Alicia and a woman named Lisa and I forget the third one, but they all had very real personal issues going on and they posted how they had to take a break and things are happening and they hope to come back someday. And the the flood of comments that it's just unbelievable. I mean, it goes from like 5 to 50 in in 10 minutes.

[00:35:24]And I actually called two of those individuals. I talked to Lisa.

[00:35:28]That was a great That was interesting and wonderful. So, I do try to reach out to people. I've also got a wonderful response to the videos when questions are asked. I'm going to try to keep that up, but I was told not to commit to any specific schedule because eventually the schedule will start determining what you talk about rather than the important things that you need to. But I do like to pop those in as much as possible and I'll continue to do that.

[00:35:54]What I appreciate is is the the stuff that you've posted all that stuff. One of the things is a person who's been in the adult learning space for a number of years.

[00:36:04]One of the things people just want to know why. They want to know why they need to do something a certain way. So, why do I need to place the the two different orders? Why do I have to do this?

[00:36:15]And a lot of times companies are really hesitant to answer that why and I you know, sometimes you you're not going to give the entire shop away, but you know, sometimes a simple explanation goes a long way. It's respect.

[00:36:28]I think it's it I think it's at a minimum it's just showing respect.

[00:36:32]Respect for the community who buys it, respect for the artist and their questions and I've got uh more than a few that I text with um as well. And I if you if as long as it comes out of a wonderful place and the best companies I ever worked with and the best people I ever worked with had a level of openness and a level of can-do and love to problem-solve which is something I really enjoy myself. Making things better. So at the basic level I just find it's respectful to answer people's questions. And if there's a And why hide? Because when individuals know more they can then also suggest things to me which takes everything to a better place. Yeah. I mean the logo in particular, I mean why did we why are we changing it? Because logos evolve. Why are we not using the last font? Because people hated it. Um but I I love the opinions and we'll find something new. Yeah.

[00:37:32]Um so I I'm looking at some of the additional my moderators. Thank you everybody for uh taking the time to moderate the conversation. They're sending me some uh questions on the side here. So getting back to the artwork and things like that. Um your artwork uh is hand-rendered or is it uh like what do they call it? A hybrid?

[00:37:56]So the images come in and there's a design team that takes the image and turns it from the digital image that you see into the rendering with the DMC's and the codes and the colors. That process takes a much longer time than I would want but it is done by people uh literally going square by square and changing it and we I mean when I was helping out with that, they hated my comments because I was overdoing it and I didn't understand what was and wasn't possible.

[00:38:29]Uh now we've got the experts doing it to shorten the time frame. So, it's we don't lay out the image. I know that some other companies actually do it like a like a full layout with different posted and things and I applaud that.

[00:38:43]Ours is done electronically, digitally through computers, but it's not just software. It is, you know, I've watched the gentlemen and the women of the design team, you know, by hand start doing it. So, So, they're they're actually on your team. They're not in the manufacturer cuz I know a lot Both sides.

[00:39:03]Both sides. Okay. Both sides. We work together. Okay. Yeah, we don't give them a finished file and say, "Here, just go produce it." and they don't give us something saying we're done. Uh there are rounds going back and forth between our team and their team. Okay.

[00:39:19]Um one of the popular questions coming in and this is very technical. Again, if you have an answer, great. If not, um people are looking for resin round drills.

[00:39:31]I don't know why we are acrylic only. I need to find out. It's on the list. I haven't gotten to it. Okay. Yeah. I think that's fair. I think it's acrylic certainly is There is still a standard in the industry to use the acrylic, but people do like the resin even though they usually bring additional problems to the diamond painter. You know, you get the more of the trash and the the whatnot.

[00:39:56]So, now this is my question. In your video, I saw you going through a book that looked like there was special drills and stuff like that. And I um I love the special drills and I know we even talked about Tema and TP with sparklers.

[00:40:16]Are you guys looking at maybe some Was that just like a ooh, shiny thing for you to look at or or >> That was my first exposure to how many different sizes and how many different shapes and how we can incorporate those. We haven't figured that out yet. We will at some point, I think.

[00:40:39]Uh, I think only having one drill when there are others available limits creativity and I don't ever want to be in a position to do that. So, I don't know how I'm sorry, I don't know the how, when, and all the aspects from it, but I got to say, looking at that book, my brain was popping and you know, and the other thing that kept coming to me was this also makes sense for the partial drills in so far as maybe part of it is what you're used to and then there's just other aspects with the the specials or stickers or something. I mean, there's so much that artists can do. And I love to work with them. Yeah.

[00:41:15]Um, now in speaking of uh, of the drills and special drills of that you had mentioned when we talked uh, last week, I believe it was, that you are uh, Dreamer Designs is co-sponsoring um, uh, the Roman's Art event coming up and uh, DP with Sparklers is one of you says you you want to Everyone you've heard about Tina, Tina, Tina, Tina and you're like, I want to meet Tina. Right.

[00:41:41]I don't I want to meet everybody. Yeah.

[00:41:43]Honestly, it's I I you know, there's an old expression, a rising tide lifts all ships.

[00:41:49]We we need to be friendly rivals. We need to as an industry lift each other up or at least not tear each other down. I I Every Every time I've ever worked with other companies, partnerships wind up in better places.

[00:42:07]We are not the only game in town. We will never be the only game in town. The smaller companies keep rising and falling. When we had a 310 problem, I met with artists and other companies you know, obviously captured by Radiance who is doing the main sponsor for the Romance Arc Winter King Storybook in June. And so I I met those women and they're fabulous and I have yet to meet anyone in the industry who isn't that way and doesn't understand that we're all in this together to some degree. You know, for I forgive the sports analogy, you know, right now the NBA's going on. All those teams are competing against each other, but they still need to be the global leader in basketball and I view ourselves the same way. We're just one company and I'm I'm happy for every other company's success. You know, there two companies right now in Hobby Lobby down the road.

[00:43:03]Not us yet, maybe us never, who knows, but you know, I applaud their success and their ability to manage inventory and get those designs.

[00:43:13]So, you know, next week I'm in Las Vegas at the Licensing Expo where a lot of my contemporaries will be and I'm meeting at least right now with two of them. So, it is what it is and I just, you know, there's so much room for success. It's a big pile. Let's all get a nice slice, preferably apple. Yeah. Diamond Art Crafters says it perfectly, there's enough room for everyone in this industry, for sure.

[00:43:37]Um, so how do you Um, and you may not have gotten to this yet, but but there are a lot of small businesses, small companies out there that either produced diamond paintings or diamond painting accessories or add-ons like the DP with Sparklers.

[00:43:58]How do are you aware of them? Like do you actively seek information about that?

[00:44:05]Like are you just trying to figure out what they do? Like, how >> So, I think I need So, here I've been doing this now 8 months. Yeah.

[00:44:14]Approximately.

[00:44:15]I believe that Dreamer Designs will be successful if we figure out how to do what we do best.

[00:44:24]What other people are doing when I find out about it, I don't think, oh, I got to go do that, too. I don't need or want to be everything to everybody. And a few of our artists are encouraging me to get into other sort of uh ways we can provide their images, and we're considering it. You know, we the other things that are out there, that was part of my trip to China. There was It wasn't really on the video, but they were showing me other accessories that we could produce or we could provide or how we could change them.

[00:44:51]Sure. We produce diamond art paintings, and I like to think that we produce the best ones out there. And that's the goal. And before we start expanding to becoming the best pen provider or the best release paper provider or the best uh when you're kitting up when you're kitting up your storage uh your your your on the table storage cabinet.

[00:45:15]You know, I don't need to be that person. I'm not hoping to be that person. I'm hoping to run a business that is a home for artists. And when we start selling other things, that's because we're also serving our community in what they want. Because it is easier for me as a consumer myself to go to one website to buy what to buy everything I might want that relates to it. But, I also I don't want to get stretched too thin, and I don't need to be this this company and that company. We are Dreamer Designs. We do one thing very well right now, and I'm very proud of it.

[00:45:47]I I really appreciate that approach because I've seen other companies try to put stuff out there, and and it becomes the norm because it's easy. People go, oh, you're going to give me this or you have it on your site, so I can click along with it, but then you miss all of these great work that some of these smaller companies do. Um, you would mention going to Vegas. I know Crashly's here, Crash with Crashly, um, her uh, Ashley and her husband Kerwin, they make um, diamond painting accessories. They do uh, fantastic release paper, stuff like that. Kerwin is actually going to Vegas next week. So, um, remember the name Kerwin if if you happen to see >> to find Kerwin. And you mentioned and I saw their website after we had our pre-interview. And what she and what she and uh, her husband Kerwin, I think, are doing, it's impressive. And I'm an entrepreneur at heart. And entrepreneurship is simply, I think I could do that and make some money. And let's see if I'm right. I'm not going to go through all the things I didn't do and the things that I failed. But, you know, when you find something that you love and that makes sense, you know, put up put everything into it. So, that's where we're that's where I am right now.

[00:47:01]And it's great that I that thank you for reminding me. I need to find them next week. Yeah. I think um, it to your sort of your point of helping each other out, something like that, it's just great to um, be able to just Yeah, you work together like, you know, Crash and Kerwin, they uh, meet with um, or they talk to the artist, get the artist license, stuff like that, with the permission of the of the company, you know, they know what they're doing.

[00:47:29]Teema is working with your designs.

[00:47:31]Everything comes back to it's hitting your it's hitting your bottom line first, actually. You're up you're in the food, you know, you're in the the flowchart up here. And now here comes release papers and uh, special drills and stuff like that. So, I think it's a great synergy.

[00:47:49]Mhm.

[00:47:50]Um, one of the things that um, has uh, come up, so uh, you talked about community, um, there are so many events that the community does.

[00:48:04]There's the Winter King one. There was a Romance Art one earlier this year. Um and in the past, um Dreamer Designs has not necessarily been uh always at the at the table when it comes to uh sponsoring or whatnot. Yep.

[00:48:21]Is there any plans to and because I know you host um the Dreamer Draw-Along or something like that. It's like your own internal, which is fantastic.

[00:48:33]Is there any plans to maybe um get out into the community a little bit more via some of the uh uh events? Yes, but I don't know which ones and I don't know when. Uh I was Serena uh Romance Art, uh she was the one who brought to my attention that the Winter King storybook was happening uh based on my relationship with her, we were able to release an image earlier than expected or earlier than planned initially, so everyone could have the kits in hand for June 1st. Uh I like working with people in ways that make sense. I don't know which events we're going to sponsor. I don't know when they are. Uh I don't know if we're going to create our own events uh featuring some of our favorite artists. Uh there's some ideas that we have there.

[00:49:16]I do know that I like partnering with people. It's it's one of the things I've done my whole career because as smart as I like to think I am at times, I also know I am also not the smartest person who knows everything. My instincts tend to not always be on point. It's why I am not licensing the art.

[00:49:35]It's [laughter] why Natalie and her team are doing it for us. So, I don't know which events and I don't know when, but yes, I would love for Dreamer Designs to be viewed as a more public partner and somebody who does these things cuz I mean, they're great these events. I mean, the feedback I hear from people after they go for a weekend uh to me with 15, 20, 50 other diamond painters, and they enjoy each other's company. So, why not get involved with that? It's >> Yeah. The community guy.

[00:50:04]Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:50:06]Um Okay. So, um Let me see. I'm just scrolling through here.

[00:50:14]Um I What we need to do is get sponsored by LaCroix based on my addiction. Yeah.

[00:50:23]Uh okay. Let me go back. Um All right. So, what um Sorry. I Like four things came to mind and they're all competing in my head right now.

[00:50:37]Um let's see.

[00:50:40]Uh we talked about Vegas. We talked about other companies. Oh, the ambassador program. So, it's my understanding your ambassador program is sort of the your boots on the the field a little bit of of folks to help promote your brand. One of the things that uh the community um a lot of the community appreciates or depend on are sneak peeks of uh kits.

[00:51:07]Yeah.

[00:51:07]>> Um sometimes that is the make or break on whether something is going to be purchased. Any plans to um expand that, revitalize it? I know you had mentioned that there were some changes that took place, system changes, and stuff like that. So, um what are your thoughts on that? So, uh just building off of how I feel about a rising tide lifting all ships. It is an area where we need to improve, where uh to run an a >> [clears throat] >> to have a good ambassador and affiliate program requires somebody to caretake it. It's it's a garden that needs watering. And either uh Brandon chose not to do that or brand or we didn't have the time to do it and it's one of the things I would like to do, you know, in terms of putting the cart before the horse, you know, I want to make sure that our website is built correctly before I start driving more traffic to it. I want to understand how much inventory I should purchase so everyone's happy that they can get their kits. So, it is a step-by-step process, but it bugs me that I can't go on Tik Tok and we're trying to get our Tik Tok shop up and I can't go on YouTube and see diamond paintings that we've created as part of those videos because it's from a business perspective, it's a lost opportunity. From a pride perspective, it's a big lost opportunity because I we all have friends and family who want to see this stuff and I'd love to be able to show them the this ambassador this affiliates videos, look, you know, every week uh he or she they're unboxing and they're happy and they the surprise at the quality of the canvas or other things. So, it's there, it's on the list. I I want to get to everything and every but I also kind of need to sleep.

[00:52:53]So, >> [laughter] >> True. True. I think that is definitely up. And you need to complete at least a mini to say that you've done one.

[00:53:03]>> [laughter] >> Exactly. Yeah. So, like we're all going to watch uh for you to be posted out there.

[00:53:09]>> And you look, the next the the best thing about social media recently was I saw a Harper's uh promotional video uh for with Kate Hudson and Brenda Song from the TV show Running Point. And they asked Kate Hudson and Brenda their most recent obsessions and Kate Hudson said, you know, diamond art paint by numbers and Brenda said, what? And she said, check it out. So, I'm trying desperately to get a kit to her uh and it's it hasn't been able to land yet, but uh I think that would be really neat if one of the kits that we produced wound up with Kate Hudson who is just a fabulous actress who I've been enjoying her work for years and years. Just Who else was that? Um I don't know if you've ever watched Dancing with the Stars. Cheryl Burke was one of the early She diamond paints and she was like one of the first like public uh people that I I ran across that >> This is This is why I'm a cheerleader for everybody. Because I don't care if Cheryl Burke is doing one of my kits or one of my friendly rivals.

[00:54:14]But if she's doing it, that's probably going to go out to more people than will see this video, no offense. Um and that it that turns out to an introduction to the niche. And if it resonates with people, they're immediately hooked like my friend Janette is now. And if it doesn't resonate with them, fine. There's 20 other things they can do for crafting and creativity or for relax relaxation or or or their getaway from their phone and their digital lives. So, again, I'm a cheerleader for all of us because there's more than enough to go around.

[00:54:46]And I really, you know, every industry has multiple players. You can't have Burger King without a McDonald's. You don't have, you know, Lowe's without Home Depot. I will stop giving examples.

[00:54:56]There's a There's a couple questions coming in back to uh the over I think it's the overseas kit that has the four uh the four the limit of four per order.

[00:55:07]Yep. Um and people are saying that that is um cumbersome some especially when it comes to sales.

[00:55:13]Is there Do you know is there a reason for that? Is there I do. It comes down to shipping and box size. When we When you start ordering more than four, the box size turns into what's known Oh jeez, I forgot the term. Essentially, any regular or a special size.

[00:55:28]>> Yes. Yep. Yep. So, that's why there's the limit of four.

[00:55:33]Uh I'd love for you to buy eight. Uh but you know, this it actually comes down to the restrictions from our shipping partners while trying to make make it affordable and reasonable for the community that's purchasing them.

[00:55:46]Because that's also important to me. Uh, you know, sorry. I'll just say this much. Recently, I saw in our group that somebody discovered how we redid our merch page. And how, you know, that doesn't really go into the free shipping. It's because if you want to rep my brand, thank you. And I'm not going to charge you for it. So, the upcharge is a couple bucks, maybe two to five at most, to cover the back end. Yeah. But, you know, that's why those prices and that quality is that price because I want to wear the hats myself or or the long-sleeve tee or the bag that says diamond painting is my jam. I think it's what it says. So, anyhow.

[00:56:22]Yep. Yeah, I >> [clears throat] >> when I um when was that? I I think the the last time we talked, you had a dreamer shirt on or something as well. I'm like, "Oh, that's right. They have merch." And I I went out to look at it. I'm like, "Got to check that out, maybe. Who knows?"

[00:56:37]Probably my hoodie. I live in a hoodie.

[00:56:39][laughter] That's what it says. Yeah.

[00:56:41]Um, so we're coming up on the hour and I don't want to keep you from your family or or getting ready for your busy week, I'm sure.

[00:56:49]Um, give me a um give me a teaser or just a summary of what what should we be looking for from Dreamer Designs and how can the community how can the community let you guys know maybe what they find important.

[00:57:09]Okay. Um, excuse me.

[00:57:11]So, I already mentioned restocks.

[00:57:13]That's one of the things that we've done just to increase the frequency of them.

[00:57:17]And if there are images and artists that you want to see, you have to let us know.

[00:57:21]Support, Facebook group, however you wish to do it.

[00:57:26]So, the one thing you can definitely see is restocks. You will see hopefully soon the ability to find us on social media in a larger way and to purchase in other ways.

[00:57:36]The the storefront is being redone.

[00:57:39]We did just update the about us story which I also discovered about 2 weeks before we did it because I'm not familiar with every page on our website yet. It's been very busy. When it comes to working with artists, we are open.

[00:57:53]There's also been a lot of discussion around AI and we're in the process People like to use the term AI slop and while no one's ever defined that, it you know it when you see it and we are going to in the next few weeks or so retire a whole bunch of images that we don't think rep the artists or our brand in the best way possible. So, we will continue to have some AI infused images on our site, but they have to be touched by an artist and the percentage that you see will be dropping because there are a lot of ways you can create art, but we like artists who and we're also going to probably change the way that we let people know.

[00:58:37]We're trying to figure out if we can have artists tell us how they used AI so it's not or just a statement saying, you know, there may be some AI. You know, if the whole thing was created, you know, 80% from prompts and 20% later.

[00:58:53]People want to know that.

[00:58:55]So, we're hoping to tell that as well.

[00:58:57]So, you know, in terms of where we go, a lot of where we're heading is going to be directed by the community.

[00:59:07]You know, having additional sparkles and enhancements or as I think we're going to call it dreamer brilliance, that's because the community wants it.

[00:59:16]You know, having less images that look like they were created by, you know, show me a ship on a harbor and then it just comes out. That's what they want. So, the one thing I can promise everybody is that this sort of feedback loop and this sort of interaction will continue.

[00:59:35]You know, we aren't going to do everything everybody wants. You know, I You're If you have a child, you know that you can't do everything everybody wants. But, you know, we will continue to try to be who we are, which is based on creating the best kits you can have for the best experience possible when you put your phone down. And while this is on YouTube, anything that gets us off the computers helps us, I think. Uh so, I like being able to provide a product and an experience that does that for people. It's It's It's actually mind-boggling to me that I get to do this.

[01:00:12]I'm having so much fun. It's why my conversations twice a week are so long, cuz I love listening and I love talking, and people ask me anything, and I tend to be a very open book.

[01:00:23]Okay.

[01:00:24]Well, um definitely it it it is refreshing, um to to have someone, you know, sort of be very forthcoming and and say what's going on and what we're working on things and and what's to come.

[01:00:38]Um I will say the next time you go to China, if you need somebody to come with you, I would love I'm a dork. I love being the the behind-the-scenes and stuff like that. Um run a contest even.

[01:00:50]You know, take somebody with you. Uh I'm taking three people with me next October.

[01:00:54]Uh it's It's my wife and my two children who are very unhappy they were not part of this trip and have let me know about that in very clear terms. And so, I do want to get over there to talk with them and continue to forge that relationship on an annual basis. So, it will be next October. That's already penciled in on our schedule.

[01:01:15]Uh do I ever get to bring customers with me? That's an idea I haven't heard yet, but uh I'll put it in the back of my mind. You never know. So, and and one of the things that you made sure to stress, at least in you said it today, but you really stressed it in our pre-interview, family-owned company in China, family-owned company here.

[01:01:34]Um so, uh Eric, thank you so much for taking the time. I hope that um you found this uh not as painful as you probably anticipated. Uh I don't know if Jenny has has been watching or lurking, if she's going to ridicule anything that happened that uh we both talked too much or something, but uh um I really appreciate it, and I'm assuming that uh well, you said if folks have ideas, concerns, thoughts, your socials, whatnot, put it out there, and it is definitely trickling up uh as as um as possible. Yeah.

[01:02:09]Thank you so much, Rich, for having me.

[01:02:11]Thank you for everyone who watches, who was watching now or watches later. Uh do reach out with suggestions. If I didn't get to your questions, we're trying to we'll try and answer them as soon as possible. And just thank you, everyone.

[01:02:24]Uh the immense amount of gratitude I have to the community, to our artists, to my team, which is exceptional, and to yourself, Rich, as well for having me.

[01:02:33]Uh just thank you very much. Anytime, Eric. You have You want to come on and talk to creators or talk to the community, whatnot, I'm happy to to help you or point you in a direction. Sounds good. All right, thanks, everybody. Have a good rest of your day. Talk to you later. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

[01:02:56]>> [music]