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The Larry Vaughn Show
Mentoring Collaboration
Leadership
The Larry Vaughn Show
17 - LVS - Mastering Craftsmanship in the Modern Print Industry with Rob Styacich
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In this engaging interview, Rob Styacich shares insights into his unique print shop in Dallas, discussing industry changes, equipment, craftsmanship, and growth strategies. Discover how a small, specialized print business thrives in a competitive market and the importance of craftsmanship and community engagement.
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I always said when I was in that chair, I said, when the day comes that I'm not having fun when I come to work, I'm out.
SPEAKER_02And that day came and I was out. The customer service representative is basically your E in the whole shop. They're kind of like the hub.
SPEAKER_00As I looked at the market and how it was changing, really decided that we had to make some changes to sort of be relevant in the future. And that's we bought an indigo three years ago. And that really was sort of the stepping stone for us.
SPEAKER_02Hey everybody, I want to thank you for watching the podcast and uh helping me on this journey. I really do appreciate all of you. What I have found interesting is that 89% of the viewers do not subscribe. What I need for you to do to help me is to subscribe to the videos. Please like and subscribe. That is what's going to give me more support than anything. I appreciate all you viewers. I appreciate everything that you do. Thank you. I'm telling you, I have got a good friend of mine that was uh going to be on the podcast. I asked him to be on the podcast, and he was a printer friend of mine probably for 30 years, I would imagine, maybe even 30 plus years. Uh Rob Steizich from uh Dallas, he was here in Houston, where, and he can probably tell you the story a little bit better than I can because he was with Wetmore, and he and I were uh I'm gonna say collaborative competitors, because if I needed something, I could call him, he needed something, he'd call me, and and vice versa. But um he decided to give it up here in Houston, and then he moved to Dallas. I believe he bought a company and as Metro VCS. What a company it is. You know, you don't see much of these kind of printers anymore because they are so unique with their specialty of what they do, and they've got some grand o equipment. You know, you've got they've got letter presses, I believe he might have a cylinder press. I don't know if he's got a plant, but he can tell you all about it. But you should see the work that he's done and also all the awards that he's done uh that he's gotten, you know, from uh from the work. So uh I'd like to introduce you to Rob Stasich from Dallas, Texas. Rob.
SPEAKER_00Larry, great to be here. It's uh that was a great introduction, and and uh yes, it's been uh we we've been in the industry together for a long time and it's been fun.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's it's it's been great. It really has. You know, and and when I I look back, and I called it you know the cronies, you know, of everybody, that the ones that are really still in the print business, you know. I'm kinda in the print business, not really, you know. Uh I left uh Thomas Printworks, you know, back in uh uh June, I think it was of last year. And so, and that's when we started the podcast, and we've been having a lot of fun with it. It's uh it's been interesting, you know, and I've met a lot of people too. So tell me a little bit uh more about your shop so where the viewers will know kind of what all you do and and everything.
SPEAKER_00So, as you said, we're we're really pretty unique. Um I bought the company seven years ago, and so we I after I left Houston, I had a couple other stops in the industry. Um, but ultimately um we wanted to get back to Texas. Um we were in Colorado and then we moved back. And I bought the shop in 2019, right before COVID. And really it was, yeah, so it was a it was an interesting time, but we made it through no problem. Um and we did a lot of interesting things. We cut face masks, did all kinds of different things, but I digress. I'll go back and just to kind of level set you as far as you know what we are and what we do. When I bought the company, we were really only a trade binder. That's all we really worked with is the local print community community, and then just a tiny bit of of the wedding industry that we we worked in. We did some high-end imitations. As I looked at the market and how it was changing, um, really decided that we had to make some changes to sort of uh be relevant in the future. And that's we bought an indigo three years ago, and that really was sort of the stepping stone for us. So um, you know, we've grown in sales by about 300% since I bought the company. Um so we've had some really great growth. And, you know, the equipment is old. I mean, some of the presses are as old as you and I, if you can believe that. Um, but we've got five Klugies, we've got a couple hand feds, we've got a high-speed die cutter, we have a digital die cutter, um, we've got perfect binding, saddle stitching, mounting, folding, gluing. Um, there really isn't anything we can't do. Um, we don't always do it within these four walls, but um, we are up to any challenge that people are gonna throw our way. And I always say we do the jobs that nobody else wants to do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. You you you get the trash. That's what I used to always say. You know, because everybody um that say, Larry, Larry, how can you you run so much black and white work? I said, because it pays the bills and it's easy. You mess it up, you throw it trash, you do it again. You know, or God almighty, we used to run quite uh quite a bit, as you know, quite a bit of that uh stuff. How many employees do you have there?
SPEAKER_00We have 10 employees now, 11 including myself. So yeah, we've when I bought it, we were three. So we were a tiny little company and we've grown, you know, quite a bit. And uh, you know, that comes with its own set of challenges.
SPEAKER_02Oh, tell me about it. Uh when I finally sold, uh, I'd finally gotten it down to uh about 85 employees, and on the high, I had like 140 employees. But it but we had to have them. I mean, we ran constantly around the clock, and as you know, I had that uh eight-color 40-inch perfector, and that was just a bruiser, you know. I mean, having that thing. It still runs today.
SPEAKER_01No kidding.
SPEAKER_02Every day, two shifts. It's just uh it's just crazy on that. It's been a good piece of equipment. Well, now do you have family involved in uh in the shop?
SPEAKER_00You know, I my my youngest was with me for a while, and it just really wasn't his cup of tea, so I don't. I would say I don't have any immediate family, but I consider all ten of the employees my family.
SPEAKER_02Oh, hands down. That's it, that's exactly right. Because I was wondering, you know, you know, what what is your plan? I mean, are you gonna hand it off to a relative or a, you know, or or son, daughter? Are you gonna maybe merge with somebody, you know, or are you just gonna outright try to sell it?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. You know, I've got a lot of years left. I don't have any intention of retiring anytime soon. My wife won't let me, first off. And and uh secondly, I've got way too much energy to think about doing anything different at this time. So, you know, I think I think I'll do this for another six, eight, ten years.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you're you're good. Yeah, I know. I'm talking about the wives, you know. I told uh Jody that I was gonna go ahead and and retire. She said, I think it sounds great, honey. I just make sure you're out of the house by eight and don't come home till five. Don't care where you go. So I I've tried to honor that. So I come back here to my little office, you know, and I hide and you know, and do my deal here, and I try to escape every once in a while. Of course, I got two.
SPEAKER_00You know, it really depends on what we grow to. I mean, I've got sort of, I mean, our our revenue has grown tremendously. I'd like to grow by another 50 to 75 percent. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, now do you have uh salespeople that work with you? I have one salesperson, um, and he's uh uh industry veteran like we are. He's got great relationships. Um, he's been with some of the top printers uh here in Dallas, and um he does a great job. And you know, he has the whole city to himself as far as sales go, and uh he has made quite an impact. He's only been here about four months.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well shoot, he is a newbie, he surely is. I think you said a while ago that you started out as a trade printer, so you sell direct now too, is that right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, we've we've got a nice mix. I I we really have um uh three verticals with kind of a fourth over to the side, and and the three verticals um really are you know, we have the design community, which we work a lot with as far as the wedding business and then high-end corporate collateral working direct with designers. Then we do still service um the print community, and some of our biggest clients are clients that have indigo's that at times can be overwhelmed and need some printing help. Um, so we we help the local community with print from time to time. And then we have some direct relationships with corporations here in Dallas, um uh packaging and and corporate collateral. And then the fourth, the fourth vertical that's kind of over at the side, we have a website that we service, uh businessprinting.com. So our clients can go to businessprinting.com and place orders. Those orders come directly into us and we send them to the indigo, we produce them and and finish them and ship them out the door.
SPEAKER_02You know, um, which you're familiar with dScope, you know, I've talked about it, and you've been to dScoop before. Um, and Aubrey and I went and looked at all the you know the digital presses. The HB had a whole load of them there that they were uh both sheet and web. And then uh, but what amazed me is all the new softwares that are out. There's a there's a man that I know um his name Roy uh from Israel, and he's involved in these four separate companies, and they had little show booths there or stands they were right here all huddled up together. And you know, just the the the front ends that they had, you know, and the the the tracking software for uh sales is what amazed me. Um and so we're gonna try to have those guys on, you know, on the on the on the podcast also. But it's just amazing how things have changed because you and I were in the print business where I mean it was just hanging it and banging it and you know, kept everything up on a three by five card, you know, and that was where you went for your repeat order, and I mean it's just it's just it's amazing. You know, and I try to talk to some of the what's that? The world has changed. Oh my God. And we we had uh there at DSCOOP, we had oh a bunch of I'm gonna call them kids, young adults, from different universities. I bet we probably had 20, 30 there. And I got to talk to pretty much every one of them, and they came and we did a little podcast with them, and they were a lot of fun. Sharp as attack. And I talked to this one young man, uh, he was a packaging designer, and that's how he graduated. And I said, Boy, you you you got the world by the tail with the packaging designer. And uh, but some of the others, and you know, they were um uh you know, estimating. They went through an estimating program, you know, uh on there. And it was interesting to see how up to date they were where I was, you know, 30 years ago.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, we've we've been really successful with having some interns uh work for us each summer. And um it's been great. They've done some really great things for us. They've they've um a couple t two different interns have have redesigned our website for us. Um so we've refreshed our website twice, and um that's been great. And then they worked on design projects for us. Um so yeah, I I agree that the the the young people today are so smart technology-wise, it's just it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, I worked with a young lady, Aubrey. I thought you you've met her, you know, and and or she sets all this stuff up, just goes right to it, and you know, and and I'm fumbling out, you know, around trying to figure out, you know, an email. Oh, well, I've got a problem, you know, on my computer. And and yeah, you just go here, you go in the corner and push the wheel, and and you're okay. You know, it's take care of it. Oh my god, it's just absolutely nuts. It really is. But has Dallas been a good market for you?
SPEAKER_00It sounds like it's been a great market. You know, we've just have had a great run and we just have some wonderful clients. I always say that great design makes for easy execution, you know, on our end. And, you know, we just we've been blessed to have some some really great work come in. And as you said, we have won um a bunch of awards and been recognized nationally. Um last year we we were recognized with the top uh print award for digital printing. Um and uh you know it's just it's been it's been great. And I you know, we have a again a great partnership with HP. We we love our press. We've had great results with it, had very few issues. Um and you know, part of that is we take good care of it and um and we have a good great press operator and um you know things are good.
SPEAKER_02But now do you just run one shift or you just work can to can?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're one shift, and um, you know, we typically we'll we'll work overtime when needed, but um we try to get it done in one shift and and uh we've been successful doing that.
SPEAKER_02You know, it it and it that's smart, very, very smart, because you know, I would we pretty much ran two shifts all the time, you know, and the one of the reasons why I ran two shifts, I either ran two eights, two tens, or two twelves. Because I found out, you know, trying to run three shifts, which you can probably relate there at Wentmore, well, the handoff is just not exactly correct sometimes. Well, if you hand it to the person when they come to work and then you have that person handed back to you when you arrive, you know, there's not a lot of stuff uh missing in there. And I but I know that when I was running that commercial work for for quite a while, well then I got into large format. And I don't know if you run any large format or not.
SPEAKER_00We do not run any large format at the current time in this building. We do run some large format, it's just we we source that.
SPEAKER_02Well okay. Because you know, well, the and the large format turned out to be uh a a great add-on to for me. Um you know, I mean it was it was a little bit of a learning curve, but not bad. You know, the main the main thing you had to learn was you know the install. What kind of material are you going to use for the walls with brick for paint for concrete and and things like that? But we did some some fun stuff for uh Memorial Herman, you know, when they were putting clinics in around the city. Um we were always doing their back wall, and their back wall was like uh um it was like 35 feet tall, but then it was a hundred and something feet wide. Right. That's that's a lot of coverage. But boy, it sure looked good. It really did. And uh matter of fact, the the lady that um designed that, she's designed several things for me. Her name's Melissa Sims. I showed her your website and showed her the stuff that you do because she likes all the the little uniqueness type stuff when she's designing things, you know, how designers are. Trying to make it just you know, it's hard for you to do to get it printed. But she uh she looked at it, so you might be getting a call from her.
SPEAKER_00Well, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_02And she is a lovely young lady to work with.
SPEAKER_00Great, perfect. Well, and you know, the the large format industry is I I um I read a statistic the other day. I mean, they expect it to go from 11 and a half billion to 14 billion within, I don't know whether it was five years or what it was, but I mean, still I think there's a lot of runway for growth in large format. It's a it's a down.
SPEAKER_02There is. Yeah. You know, and and the the things that they have nowadays, and and because I did a lot of fabric, printed on fabric, and and now these um people have come in, designed these module um uh pieces that go into like a a conference or to a trade show or something, and boy, you get this fabric and you take it and they put a little rubber edge on the on the end of it, you just slip it in those grooves and set it up. I mean, it's it's just instant, you know, and it's lightweight. Doesn't cost you a lot to ship it, easy to set up. Right, you know, so now I really expect to uh see it just grow, and plus all the vehicle wraps and trailer wraps.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02You know, we did a tremendous amount of those. I did one huge trailer for United Airlines um to cover that thing up, and it was uh and that also was a nice, easy job, you know, and it just it just if if I would have only had just a large format shop, I would have been fine. You know, but you know, I had had old tools there that I still had had still had b had a bank to satisfy, so I still had all that equipment, you know, that was uh that was running. Well now so when when did you leave Wetmore?
SPEAKER_00I left Wetmore in 2002, uh 2012. 2012. I was there almost 10 years.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so had they they had already been acquired.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they they were acquired shortly after I got there by Donnelly. Yeah. That happened that happened in that actually happened the week after I started. It was more Wallace when I started, and R.R. Donnelly acquired uh more Wallace. I want to say it was uh November of 2003 that um that that happened. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Wow, a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00And then I left in 2012, yeah. Yeah, that was a long time ago. We've been doing this a long time, my friend.
SPEAKER_02Golly, you know, and I look back and you know, and when I went back at DScoop, when I was there at D Scoop and I was talking to all the guys and they said, Well, you remember such and such? And I said, Yeah, I do. I said, Yeah, that was in 1997. You remember that? And you know, and going on. And I don't know if you know Francis McMahon. Boy, that name sounds familiar. Well, he was with uh HP when the Indigo really started coming out, and then he went to Canon. Okay, and then he was the marketing guy at uh Canon, and now he left there, and now he went to work for a company called TechNew, I think that's the name of it, where they've got front-end and tail end equipment that goes on digital presses.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Very unique company. Um, you know, they handle a lot of packaging, they handle um um, you know, stitching and you know, folding and everything else that uh comes off the end of the press. Oh man.
SPEAKER_00So are you going to expand uh um another piece of equipment or are you looking into it or I mean we're always looking at things that we can offer, you know, things that our clients are looking for. Um you know, and I think we're gonna stay in that specialty market. We're not I'm not looking to become a commercial printer. I mean, we I mean, for the most part, when people come to us, they want us to do the job. Um we're we're a lot of times uh we're not really competing with anybody. And that's because we have such unique finishing capabilities. And for us to be able to do it all under one roof, I mean, I think it um I think something that would be nice for us would be a a laser cutter. Um we have a lot of clients that want to do laser cutting of paper and laser cutting of different substrates. Um and then there's some there's some material or some equipment that we need from a bindery perspective to create some efficiencies with scoring and folding and and those kind of things and stitching um as we continue to grow in that area. But you know, we don't do a ton of stitching. Um, we do a fair amount of specialty perfect binding. Um we have a PUR binder, which has been great. Um and uh but you know I'm always open I'd say that um yeah you know so we'll just see what direction it goes as as you said you know the indigo was a it's a it's a big uh it was a a lot of money for us uh we were you know we were a small company when we bought it and quite frankly we probably had no business buying one but I kind of knew that if we did you know that it would come and it has and we just need to keep up that momentum. You know uh for the listeners out there this Rob's company is the the operators they're true craftsmen they're not just digital button pushers and that was my uh question I mean I guess they're probably been with you for you know since the inception and then how do you find craftsmen like that nowadays it's you know it's really a challenge um and uh you know our operators are craftsmen and what we do is a craft you know foil stamping heat foil stamping is it it's a craft you know sometimes the the foil doesn't want to stick to a material material you got to try a different foil you might have to put clear foil down underneath the foil to get it to stick all kinds of different tricks that um we do to make things look as as good as they possibly can but to answer the question specifically you know one of the reasons I I get involved with the internships and the local community through the AIGA and the DSVC is I want the the young kids out there to see who we are and what we're doing and we've been able to hire a couple of of younger um uh student uh students that have graduated from college and one in uh one specifically who wants to learn letterpress and wants to learn foil and you know he's in his 20s so you know that's a pretty unique that's a pretty unique find. But you know finding an operator um as far as the the community here there's not many people that do what we do but there's two or three within our neighborhood here and and as you said we're friendly competitors and we kind of have a agreement that we're not going to try and and steal or poach each other's employees because um that's that's it's a it's a it's not a winner for any of us. So we all just kind of stay to ourselves and keep doing our thing and um you know and and really try to bring in and nurture some new employees to to learn the trade.
SPEAKER_02And you're exactly right because I know it seems like that we were always running some type of training program there at uh there at the shop because you just don't find an eight color press operator.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02You know and it takes a skill to run both sides at the same time at 13000 sheets an hour to make a match. Right. You know it's okay you just run one side flip it over and then watch it and then run the other side but you got those two sides running.
SPEAKER_00So I had I had a a kid named uh Jesse now he's not just a kid but he uh he's still there running that press he'd been he'd been running that press now for uh well 25 years I bought it in 2000 so he he's doing a uh uh a real good job Wendy do y'all have uh like uh lunch and learns or do y'all have uh open house to invite the ad agency community over because it seems like that's where a lot of your creative work comes from I would think yeah it's interesting that's a great question you know uh just about uh a month ago um we had an event right before Valentine's Day in combination with the AIGA and we had 25 designers slash students come in on a Saturday morning for coffee and breakfast and then we printed Valentine's Day cards for everybody and we foil stamped them and we scored them and we trimmed them and everybody walked out with 25 Valentine's Day cards and 25 envelopes that's good.
SPEAKER_02Well now have you had them there when the production staff is actually running to let them see it run?
SPEAKER_00Yeah we have and we we had we've had a couple of open houses we didn't do one last year but the prior two years right around Memorial Day we did open houses and we had um uh we brought in tables and had barbecue served and you know we were working away showing everybody what was going on and yeah it was it's been good and it's been fun and we like to be involved with the community.
SPEAKER_02Oh hands down but you know when you invite those people to come because when I would have them come to my shop you know and they'd see that cylinder press run of course they would hear it you know it's like a locomotive you're woof woof you know they their eyes were drawn to that and it was kind of sitting back in the back you know of course you hear it all through the shop and they would always want to go back there and and uh watch it run and and we'd pull sheets off and show it to them how we were die cutting and scoring and and uh everything I don't know if you remember uh uh a guy uh his name was Rick Yates an old timer I don't remember that name does not ring a bell with me oh he was a true craftsman he he worked I don't I I don't know if he was at Whitmore or where he came from but um you know he's I'm sure he's not with us anymore but golly what a craftsman he was I mean just the way that he could handle the presses the way he knew what to do on the presses you know and the way that he was able to jerry rig you know sometimes you know to get the press running because you just don't find mechanics anymore either right that come in and I think Gunther was the last one. I don't know if you know Gunther he worked for Heidelberg and then he went out on his own.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I know the name I know the name there's there's still a couple of there's still a couple of guys up here in Dallas that that work on equipment like we have which um you know they're but they're boy they're few and far between oh they are now there was a a company up in Dallas that uh God I I can't remember their name right now but they moved disassemble and moved equipment. Yep yep I know who you mean they're right there um off the freeway coming up here um oh jeez god I can't remember their name but they because they moved a bunch of equipment yeah yeah they moved a bunch they moved uh they moved one of the webs from um from Dallas to Houston when we got the the second web uh at the R.R. Donnelly plant um yeah well I can I I know who exactly who you're talking about and I just can't think of yeah and he he always has some good guys uh that worked uh that worked with him so but I can only imagine I know that you are thrilled to be out of that environment that's a tough environment that was a tough environment yeah that was a tough environment and you know it was I'd I'd say in the beginning it was a lot of fun I mean we had um we were able to do things and and um you know no no no I don't have any ill will toward that company but things just continued to change and I'm a bit more of a freewheeler and um when you're in that environment they don't like freewheelers and I just felt like it was time for me to go.
SPEAKER_02I always said when I was in that chair I said when the day comes that I'm not having fun when I come to work I'm out and that day came and I was out yo that's exactly right and that's what made my decision to go ahead and retire because you know I sold the company in in uh 2016 and that state worked but it is hard when you sell a company and then somebody else is making the decisions that you see and how the employees you know of course you always have your favorites of of the employees because you know who works and who doesn't and you'd see some of that and then I would I'm voiceless and I would say something said no I said I don't think that's the way you want to run it. Larry you just sell we will run the company right you know and employees would come to me and I said you know I'm I'm I'm sorry. I mean I I have no no grounds to do uh anything whatsoever and you know they have gone from you know God almighty I think it's close to 250 employees combined you know and then now they're uh I think they're down to about 70 and and Larry remind me who bought the company who bought your company uh Thomas Printworks okay home office yeah yeah yeah sure yeah I okay I I I I got it yeah I should have known that I just I didn't I didn't put the two together okay yeah and but good company you know and and uh you know they've got several locations you know around the U.S. and the mainly large format and and I'm on the telephone you know cut sheet they do a lot of eight and a half by eleven work you know black and a lot of uh architectural work also right you know so it was so so they're they're just different and then it was just I'm like you it was just time for me to go and time for me to do something else so I kind of prepared all this and then I said I gotta go do something you know on that so it uh and then I've got a um naturally you know they bought the company so I have a non-compete for you know a two year period and after that you know I might scratch around a little bit you know in the print because I still know quite a quite a few people you know on on that now uh so in your sales rep that you have and does he mainly call on because I'm kind of looking to looking at me so does he um call on agencies or does he call on uh healthcare I mean what what does he do?
SPEAKER_00So what's interesting is he his for the majority of his career he was at Williamson. Okay. So um you know he has some wonderful relationships with nonprofits with corporations with designers um so he's he you know if it fits right in perfect with what we're doing um and you know typically that stuff's short run you know people aren't running a lot of you know if if there's an event they're doing a thousand or you know maybe 1500 imitations depending on what it is or or maybe 200 um and you know foil and die cutting and mounting and folding and gluing and all those things just go right along with all that I mean we just finished a really nice um campaign for a local university where we mailed out around 2000 um save the dates and now we're doing around 1400 invitations and you know there's an invitation and a and a map card and a folder and an envelope and they're all custom so we print them and we die con them and we foil stamp them and fold and glue them and so yeah and you know a lot of that stuff we just do by hand because we don't have a lot of waste and it keeps the cost down and you know just we have and we have good people that pay attention to detail and there you have it. Well that's the other thing my favorite group or employees there was always the hand workers the ladies they're in findery you know they're most of them were either Hispanic or Asian you know it seems like they were uh wonderful ladies and some of them had been with me for years and years and um dependable they always showed up if they needed to stay late they stayed late just no question no no issues no problems uh whatsoever so it it was it was fabulous on that so what you know what can I do to kind of help you in the Dallas area any besides the referrals call up a few people and find a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of business for us would you okay I'll see what I can do I'm gonna send you Melissa you know and I really I I mean just being able to sit and talk with you and and talk about the industry and um you know we're just unique and um I I'd say just pass the word there there I don't think there's anybody in Houston that does what we do. You know uh and and there's really nobody up here that does what we do. You've got we've got some folks around us but they don't have printing equipment and they don't you know they don't focus on the smaller projects like we do. They you know most people want the big project well I want the smaller project and more of them which boy I'll tell you it comes with this set of challenges. I mean it you know there's lots of detail and but we have we have three customer service people that manage all that and keep all the T's crossed and the I's dotted and and um they do a great job and we're lucky to have them and I think we have the best team that we've we've had since I owned the company right now.
SPEAKER_02So I'm telling you I say this all the time you know the customer service representative is basically your key in the whole shop. And they're they're kind of like the HUD because in that HUD, you know, they are talking to the customer they are talking to production they are talking to accounting they are generating you know from from pre press you know getting uh um proofs and things you know and so everything just always circles through them and you know all all I've said before you know it just a custom a good salesman gets him a good customer service person and stays out of the office. There's no reason for him to be involved there at the shop and be involved with the the the work there he just needs to let the customer service person handle it get it done and get uh you know and she should only call the salesperson when there's an issue and that is their problem you know the the salesperson then they handle those kind of uh issues you know I I see that all the time and then when they different companies you'll have layoffs they go and they lay off a customer service person I'm like geez so we I mean you're laying off a salesperson you're laying off one that's got contacts you know that knows all the all the customers I mean you just got to get them in there and and and train them I know that when I started having a tough time there um I met with my staff once a month you know we had a lunch and you know and they got to listen to Larry Vaughn you know good news bad news well this was the bad news and I I told them I said let me tell you what I need to do you know instead of laying somebody off I'm gonna reduce pay well I reduced my pay by 50% and then the administration staff uh I uh cut their pay I think around 25% and then the um uh production uh staff that was you know back there well I could control their hours you know instead of them doing 40 hours well they might do 30 hours you know and then the uh the managers I think I cut them you know around 15% and then as we got business came in well I I gave them 2% back well I gave them this back until finally they got all caught up you know to where we were they were thrilled to death communication as long as you just continue to talk to them because if you don't talk to them well then here comes rumors well they're gonna go out of business well they're gonna do you know it you know which is not true you know but they they just feel that on the inside you know the of that Rob I'm gonna tell you right now it's been great seeing you great talking to you because I haven't seen you in many years we've talked you know uh quite a bit but we have not uh seen each other do you ever come to Houston? I do I've I've been down there a few times well I'll uh next time I'm down there I'll look you up please do and I'll uh I'll I'll feed you I surely will but no it's been great I enjoyed talking to you I enjoy you being on the on the podcast and I enjoyed hearing about your your your shop because it is unique and that's you know I like all that kind of work um but what we will do you know is is put um you know for all the viewers you know we will have um the website where you can go and you can look in the show notes so you'll you'll be able to see that see everything.
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SPEAKER_00Rob I appreciate appreciate it greatly there thanks so much Larry thank you see you soon if you're enjoying the Larry Vaughn show don't forget to give the episode a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and ring that notification bell to ensure you never miss a new episode