Geno Grabinski on Printing, Community Service & Building Relationships Through Compton Press

Geno Grabinski on Printing, Community Service & Building Relationships Through Compton Press

In this episode of Opening Doors, Annette Compo sits down with longtime friend Geno Grabinski of Compton Press, a Farmington Hills printing company offering digital and offset printing, creative design, mailing, fulfillment, finishing, and more.

Geno shares how his career began in trophies and awards back in 1982, how Compton Press supports businesses and nonprofits throughout Farmington, Farmington Hills, and the surrounding community, and why strong relationships still matter in business. He and Annette talk about printing, direct mail, community service, nonprofit work, the Greater Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce, the Elks, and the value of showing up for local organizations.

This conversation is part business, part friendship, and part reminder that community connections often become the foundation for lasting professional relationships.

🖨️ CONNECT WITH GENO GRABINSKI
Compton Press
🌐 Website: https://www.comptonpress.com/
📞 Phone: 248-473-8210
📍 Address: 23079 Commerce Drive, Farmington Hills, MI 48335

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📞 Call: (877) ANNETTE
📧 Email: annettecompo@kw.com
📍 Office: 30500 Northwestern Hwy, Suite 300, Farmington Hills, MI 48334
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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello, it's Annette Compo with Opening Doors. This episode is with a very longtime friend, um, Gino Gorbinski. Welcome, Gino.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome, Annette. How are you? Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

You just welcomed me to my podcast. I love that about you. We literally have been friends, I don't even know how long. 20 years? Yeah. Yeah. A long time. I don't even know Trevor was able to drive when I met you. I think he was just a little guy. He was. So, Gino, you have been in the um branding business, marketing business for how long?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Um, started with trophies and awards back in 1982.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Okay, I was still in high school.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

So it's been a few years. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

We're gonna participate with that. So, Gino, tell us a little bit about your company name and and how it got started.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yeah, so right now I'm working with uh Compton Press Industries. We're a full service printing company. Um, started back in 1967. Um, it's owned by Dan Michaels and Jeff Goulian. Uh we do a lot of business with CARES, we do a lot of business with the City of Farmington, Farmington Hills, a lot of different nonprofits. Um, we're pretty big in the nonprofit business helping out.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

And it's so cool because um when I when I talk about you and what you do to other business owners, um your relationships is really what has drove that company to what it is today. Um, and of course, everything that you've done at CARES, um, you know, thank you so much. It just seems like every time I see something, I'm like, oh, there goes Gino again. Yeah. And, you know, when you support those nonprofits, obviously they do have budgets, right? And everyone has to kind of pay their fair share. But people don't realize that, you know, individuals like yourself that really believe in the supporting of the mission and vision of that nonprofit, um, you know, you you kind of you leverage that um in regards to how the printing, you know, goes and the cost of it. So I thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Oh, absolutely. We I mean, you know, the goal is to make it um worthwhile for the customer to do business with us um and give them a good product. You know, that's the that's the bottom line is, you know, we we'll give you the service and we'll give you a good product. You're not gonna get something bad from us.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Right. And you know what's neat is is that when you aligned with cares, um, I always try to, you know, butter you up to hopefully maybe get you on the board of directors at some point. You just you're so active in the community just like I am. And um, I think that those types of relationships, like I'd mentioned, is what helps you grow your business. Absolutely. So your relationship, how I met you, was through the Greater Farmington Chamber of Commerce. We've been serving on that board of directors um, hopefully not too much longer because we got all this new blood coming in.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

And uh and then from there, what other organizations have you been uh volunteered or on the board of directors for?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Um, I was on the board of directors of Goodwill of Detroit.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Um, I served on there for eight years, and then I did um did uh I'm with the Knights of Columbus and involved very heavily with the Elks organization, being uh district vice president and then state uh chairmanship and executive director of our goalkey program in the state.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Nice. Why do you why do you believe that those partnerships, um, you know, because obviously it's it's uh leadership through community service. How do you feel like that has impacted your business?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Well, it impacts your business because you know, you meet a lot of different people when you're in those organizations and dealing with the chamber people, dealing with uh elks members, you know, a lot of them have businesses, and when they have businesses, it helps create that relationship um so you can help each other out.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Love that. So share with me um what is the craziest thing that you put someone's logo on?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

What is the craziest thing I put somebody's logo on?

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Now, if you're listening, I didn't give him heads up on my questions. No, she didn't. So we gotta give him a little bit of seconds here.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Um I would say the craziest thing we ever did was I would say the how about the coolest thing I ever did.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Okay, coolest is good.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

The coolest thing I ever did was um back in like 2000, I think it was 14, 15. Um, at Detroit Golf Cup Club, they hosted the um Arnold Palmer's 50th anniversary winning the US amateur. Nice. Um and we did a bunch of awards for them. Um I did do an award um in the last couple years. I did a plaque that was given to President Trump.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Um by um at then uh Chief uh Bill Doyer from the City of Warren. Um I have done sports items, uh charity sports events for professional sports athletes.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Um so my next question was is that who have you met that's famous because of your branding?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Um yeah, I've met a bunch of different players from the Lions, the Tigers, um, Red Wings, um, at charity golf outings and just meeting them in. We bring them in. We do a lot of work with the Jewish Community Center, um, met Goose Gossage, Jack Morris, um, at their golf outing that we helped sponsor.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

So I love that. You know, I was thinking you were coming on, so I was thinking of crazy stuff that I could say because you know, of course, I gotta go for the effect, right? Because that's my personality. Is I was thinking, what can I do to stump Gino when interviewing him today? And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna ask them, is it possible to take my face and make it into a temporary tattoo?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Actually, it is.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

It is. Oh my use you were like straight face when I have to do it.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

We could we could make a bobblehead out of you.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Really? A bobblehead out of me. Okay, it's done. We're gonna make a bobblehead. That's about it. Well, I don't know, the temporary tattoo would be kind of fun though, too, right? So, but uh well, that's awesome. So tell me if a business is looking at um the different printing needs they have, are you like full stop? You know, no matter what you want, you can put your your logo on it.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yep, pretty much anything you want. You know, if you want to do a newsletter, if you want to do a brochure, you want to do a program for an event.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Um so it's not just the mugs and the t-shirts and the and the bags that people have and the, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

No, we we we do all that stuff, but really our primary is uh printing on paper products.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Uh, you know, postcards for um, we do a lot with Keller Williams, uh domain out of West Bloomfield in Birmingham. We do all the owners.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Um, and we do a lot of different um, we just quoted a catalog for uh a company out of um Canada. So it's a whole bunch of different things. Mailing services. We're a full service mailing company. You can come to us, bring us a list, we can design a postcard, design a mailing piece for you and get it sent out. We go to the post office daily, dropping items off. We get a little better pricing um than you would if you um mailed first class.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

So when when people hear that direct mail piece, that's what you're referring to as this correct direct mail means is that you're getting a lower postage cost by um you know sending it through all the same to zip codes, correct?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Correct. You need to send at least 200 pieces to be able to get the special pricing. And that right now it's around if you're doing a postcard, it's around 48 cents a piece postage.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

I laugh because I just found out just recently how much a US um stamp is. Yeah, because I had just lost track of it. I just buy those forever stamps and didn't think twice about it. And I was like, oh my gosh, how much is that direct mail piece I do? You know, and now I know it's 48 cents. I remember when it was like 24.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah, now you could get around 24 cents if you do an EDDM piece, which is everydoor direct mail. And what that is, is you're targeting specific routes, and everybody on that street or everybody in that route would get your mailing piece.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Okay. Versus the alternate is is how is that categorized?

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Well, which is the alternate direct mail, and direct mail is we put a list and it goes to different people in the zip codes. It doesn't go to everybody there, it would go to just certain addresses um that we picked out for you, or we got from a mailing list company. Um if you order a mailing list, you can get we did a customer one time where um they were selling cribs and they wanted to um find out women that were in their first trimester of their pregnancy because statistics show that they buy the most cribs.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

I would guess so. So it would make sense. I'm driving a 1922 car. There's a high probability I would need a new one. So, well, that's interesting. I never knew that that's how that kind of worked out. So, how do you help a business that's looking at getting into like maybe a statistical type of mailing, which is like you mentioned, somebody that has an event going on in their life, so there's a higher probability they would use that product or service. Um, how do businesses know how to do that?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

So, what they would do, they would give us a call, tell us what their criteria is, what they're looking for. Um, you know, it could be somebody, it's a new preschool opening up, you know, we need homes that um are valued at $300,000 up. Um, they have kids that are between the ages of zero to six, um, and they make this amount of money.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

And the purpose of that is obviously to really kind of look at the people that are higher probability of needing the service, but it's also sounds like to save money.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

It does.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Yeah, because no different than if I'm sending out my real estate information, I don't want to send maybe to, you know, a nursing home, right? There's a very low probability that when we go into, you know, a senior center that we're gonna come back out again, right? We're you know, right.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Because when you get a mailing list, you know, they're gonna send you all the lists in that, they're gonna send you everybody in that area code, say. So they'll send you people that are in apartments, they'll send you people that are in uh trailer parks in the housing, and the housing can start at low income all the way to high income. So then when we get those lists, then we can narrow it down to exactly what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Interesting. And you offer all that as a service for doing business with you. Nice. So let's get into the personal stuff. So who's your big why?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Who's my big why?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

That would be your wife, Gina.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

My uh that would be my wife.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Great answer, Janny.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Um, we've been married for 39 years, and she's so lovely.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

I really like her.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Yep, she works from home, so since COVID hit, but she seems to enjoy that.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Well, and it's you know, she supports all of your activities, the volunteering, the boards, the all of that, and that's a true statement. She does, you know, of who she is. And and you know, we always say, um, especially when I'm addressing our board of directors, we have to thank the people that are behind sometimes our board of directors, because they're supporting those individuals. So that's such a huge role for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's you know, there's times when I'm doing chamber stuff, I don't get, you know, look at when we used to host and help with the founders festival. Oh, you know, that weekend you were gone. I was gone.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Morning to morning. Basically, we were in these cleaning up at like three, four, five o'clock in the morning. Absolutely. Those are the good old days, though. I I had a great time doing that.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

But they were home, you know. I mean, they were doing what had to be done to keep the family, you know, going as we're volunteering. So, Gino, at the end of every podcast, we have a tradition, um, which is we always kind of say, Hey, if you could meet your younger self, um, what advice would you give that person?

SPEAKER_00 12:29

My advice would probably be pay more attention in school.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Any specific grade?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Just all of it, you know. It kids kids nowadays don't realize um, you know, going through that school process on how much that grade point average means to try to get into a college, you know, and it might be another thing, you know, go to college. You know, I went to some college, but you know, I never graduated. You know, nowadays I would say get your degree.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Or go to a trade school.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Yeah. And and do something obviously that you have a passion for. Absolutely. Right, because that's what's going to get you out of bed and do the things that you need to do when you don't, you know, you don't really want to.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's if you don't want to get up in the morning, then you shouldn't be doing what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Right. Well, Gina, once again, thank you for not only being here at the podcast, but also everything you've done at CARES. Um, and and just being just a really great friend. Um, my friendship with you is one of those things that I value at such a high level. Um, we've seen each other through a lot of crazy things in different types of nonprofit sectors and personal. And so thank you so much for being just a good, good friend.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

No, and I uh thank you for being my friend. You know, now I we have Trevor and Liv. You know, I appreciate your guys' relationship.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Oh, that's amazing. So until next week, I'll see you then.