Hey fam!
Wait, what IS THAT THING?
It kinda looks like a bird! 🦅
Actually, now that I take a second, it looks more like a plane! ✈️
Oh shoot... that's not right either.
Whatever it is, it's super fly—that's for sure.
It's...
🎉 TOTEM TUESDAY 🎉
(Aww geez, a bird and a plane aren't even close to the same size...I really need some new glasses!)
This is a big week at Totem (let's be real, when is it ever not?)
🤗
Why? Because one week from today, we will be reporting to you live from SXSW in Austin, Texas for our second year in a row!
If anyone reading this will be in attendance, be sure to swing by Booth #825 right in the middle of the SXSW Expo and say hi 👋
Keep reading for more on our SXSW presence down below!
⬇️
Before we dive into our 3-2-1 for the week, we'll cover the latest info on rollout.
🎁 Shipping Update! 🎁
Last week, we announced that ALL of our pre-orders had been shipped!
Not only that, but last week's shipment also covered every single Totem purchase made in 2024—which means there are now over 24,000 Totem Tribemates all around the world 🤯
If you're still waiting on your Totems ordered in 2025, they will be heading your way in the next few weeks. As of now, all new orders ship within 45 days of purchase, a number which we're working to reduce as time goes on.
Reminder: If you're one of the many people receiving their Totems this week, be sure to tag us on Instagram, Facebook or Tik Tok. We repost every single one!
OK—let's get this party started.
This is our weekly progress report to all our favorite people.
(yes, that includes you, friend — you are like, our favorite!)
Welcome to the Totem Tuesday 3-2-1.
3 things we accomplished,
2 things we learned,
1 thing coming up
Let’s go, Tribe!
😘
3 things we accomplished ⬇️
1) Independent Technical Case Study on the Totem Compass 🛜
We've got some very exciting news from the technical front to share this week... 🤓
u-blox, one of the world leaders in geopositioning technology, published the first-ever technical case study detailing the world-class performance of the Totem Compass!
This case study explores the complete development process, and highlights how u-blox technology unlocked the exceptional real-time precision that Totem is famous for.
After flying to visit us from their headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland, u-blox suggested this Case Study after witnessing our product exceed the performance levels in their own product specifications!
They were blown away by the Totem Compass tech, and we're incredibly stoked that this excitement is now memorialized in this way 🤗
You can read the full case study by visiting this link: The Friend-Finding Compass.
2) Australian Distribution Leveling Up 💪
Now that pre-orders are completed, it is a huge priority for us to expand our distribution channels overseas in order to reduce shipping costs for Tribemates outside the US.
We've received thousands of partner inquiries from countries all over the world—people just can't wait to get their hands on massive quantities of Totems to distribute in their home countries 😎
We'll have more concrete details to share soon, but we have reached a point where we can announce that our first official distributor in Australia will be up-and-running soon!
There are a massive number of Aussies in the Totem Tribe, so we are thrilled that we are close to being able to offer a far more direct way of getting Totems in that region very soon 🫶
3) West Coast Distribution
Surprise! That's not all when it comes to logistics 🎉
We are opening a new warehouse/fulfillment center on the West Coast to level up our shipping game even further!
This will greatly reduce the cost of international orders and cut costs (and shipping time) for all our Americans on the West Coast.
While this isn't the final solution for affordable worldwide shipping, it is definitely an exciting step in the right direction 🙏
Stay tuned for more updates on international partnerships, distributors and improvements to our logistics overall.
Our ultimate goal is for every country on Earth to have affordable shipping... because NOBODY deserves to ever be lost again 💗
2 things we learned ⬇️
1) Crystal is Learning 🫶
Last week, we introduced you all to our new AI-powered Customer Service Agent, Crystal! 💠
Our goal with utilizing AI in our Customer Service suite is NOT to replace the genuine human connection that we strive for so vigilantly here at Totem.
Instead, she's there to help assist with simple questions and common troubleshooting issues that could be resolved easily, to help you get help as quickly as possible while we scale our team. Any more complex issues get escalated directly to our team of humans for a sub-24 hour response. 🫶
That said, we've learned that Crystal is still a work in progress—and is getting some more training from our team.
A few points we're focusing on:
- Teaching Crystal how to effectively help Tribemates troubleshoot issues in real time. Right now, she can make recommendations, but we're building her knowledge base with tips and tricks, arming her to have full-blown discussions and resolve problems with you in the moment 🙏
- Addressing confusion around shipping timelines and enabling Crystal to provide accurate, detailed order information. This task will be much easier once we are stocking inventory and shipping in real time (coming soon!)
- Using Crystal's interactions with customers to streamline our entire Customer Service process and advise the Totem team on which resources need tweaking or restructuring 🌱
Our ultimate goal is to have as comprehensive of Customer Service as possible. Since many festivals and live events take place on weekends, you deserve to have a positive customer support experience 24/7.
While we hope as few of you as possible need to chat with the CS team, don't forget to let us know how we're doing if you do end up interacting with them 💗
2) Shipping Zones Make a Big Difference
With all of our progress on improving our logistics and shipping, that came with quite a few learnings on our end, too!
Did you know that the U.S. is divided into 8 different Shipping Zones?.
Shipping zones are groups of zip codes that carriers ship to, spanning from Zone 1 to Zone 8 for domestic shipments in the United States.
Shipping carriers determine shipping costs based on the item's weight and which Shipping Zone you live in.
We're very proud to offer free domestic shipping here at Totem. While a West Coast Distribution Center will not have any impact your shipping costs, it does mean your Totems will arrive to you sooner if you're on the West Coast 🎉
We're grateful for our logistics partners for educating us on how Shipping Zones work and working with us to help reduce our operating costs.
This, in turn, results in us having more resources to invest in developing more amazing products for YOU! 🫶
1 thing to look forward to ⬇️
1) SXSW 2025 is upon us 🤩
The time has FINALLY come 🤯
In less than a week from writing this, we will be exhibiting at the SXSW Creative Industries Expo, running from March 9th-12th.
We've got a bigger booth than last year, smack-dab in the center of the exposition center at Booth #825! 💪
We're pretty sure ours is the pinkest booth to ever exhibit in SXSW history... and we can't WAIT to show you what it looks like!
While we have a lovely mockup of the booth we could share here... we think that it would be doing it a disservice to show it now...
Why? Because SXSW 2025 will be the FIRST EVER live demonstration of Totem's Emergent Crowd Animations!
This is one of the features that we're most excited to debut: our Unity Mesh Network allows for dynamic crowd animations unlike anything seen at an event before—enabling synchronized emergent lighting effects throughout crowds with no on-site infrastructure.
Peep the GIF below for a little teaser, but we have some incredibly exciting things in the pipeline that we'll be sharing soon 😌
To add to this, the next Totem Tuesday will be written AT SXSW right from our booth, reporting on some incredible news we have for everyone as well as showcasing the Totem Tribe that comes to visit!
(Stay locked in on TT next Tuesday for some serious heat 👀)
We absolutely cannot WAIT to see all of you there.
SXSW is a full circle moment for us—we've come a long way since last March and are over the moon with this progress 💗
Closing out this week with a quote from Bruce Lee, which actually underlines a core tenet of our company culture here at Totem...
“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them."
This time next week, fam?
✌️ + 🩷
The Totem Team
(P.S. — if this is your first Totem Tuesday, we hiiighly recommend that you go back and check out all the past Totem Tuesdays on our website. Every single decision we’ve made with the product is detailed extensively in past editions. Have fun 😘)
