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Learn how to build a better sign and
print shop from a few crusty sign

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guys who've made more mistakes than
they care to admit conversations

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and advice on pricing, sales,
marketing, workflow, growth, and more.

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You're listening to the better sign shop
podcast with your hosts, Peter Kourounis,

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Michael Reilly, and Bryant Gillespie.

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Before we jump into the episode,
I'd like to give a shout out to

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our sponsor, GCI digital printing,
grand format printer to the trade.

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GCI is not your average print shop.

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They pride themselves on
providing you a fast, stress

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free experience when outsourcing.

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Their no excuses mindset means no matter
the job, they'll have it done every time.

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No other vendor will go to the
lengths that GCI does to ensure

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you're a satisfied customer.

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To hear more about their approach
to business, hop back into the

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archives to episode 9, where the
guys and I interview owner TJ Bedak

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about top tier customer experience.

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If you're looking for a high quality trade
printer for banners, mesh, Coroplast, and

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more, TJ and his crew will have your back.

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For jobs big or small, GCI does them all.

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Check them out at PrintGCI.

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com.

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Hi guys, and welcome to the next
edition of the Better Sign Shop podcast.

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As always, I've got my co
host, the Sign Shop Yoda, Mr.

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Pete Karunas.

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Happy to be here.

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Happy to be back.

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That's right.

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It's been a while.

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Yeah.

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I forgot how to do this.

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Uh, I forgot how to use my microphone,
forgot how to use my camera, made

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sure all the settings still worked.

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You know, this is, I think I got a couple
of new cool features where if I go like

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this, like it'll, Hey, and I get some
really nice fireworks and stuff like that,

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but I've disabled all of that for today.

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Oh, well, I'm sad.

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We're not going to get to see that.

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I talked with Michael.

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He is in the middle of a
terrible sinus infection.

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So we're not going to have him today,
but we do have a special guest.

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I'm a little raspy because my daughters
like to cough in my face all week.

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So we'll just have to contend with it.

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Super excited to be back.

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Oh, there's the fireworks.

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There you go.

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Love it.

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Yeah.

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For, for all the listeners out there,
we did receive all the emails of, okay.

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Are you guys saying, Hey,
when is the next episode?

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Did we just kind of took a
nice little summer break that

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extended a little past summer?

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Yeah.

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I mean, it's, it's been
a great summer for me.

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You know, I've been, I've met some really
new people, some new clients, some new

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sign shop owners around the country.

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I'm, I've had some time to get
over, you know, my, my baseball

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team, not making the playoffs.

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This year now, I'm at the hockey season,
so I'm, I'm enjoying the start of

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something new to take up my personal
time, but, you know, like, look, it's

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been, it was great to take the summer off.

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We're like, this is a new podcast.

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We don't, we didn't want to leave
everybody, but we did want to enjoy.

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Our summer here, uh, probably not
going to enjoy next summer because

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we'll probably be doing a lot
more podcasts through the summer.

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But Brian, what you've been working
on, man, what you've been doing

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since the last time we spoke,

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too much to recount.

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Like, I've got a lot of cool things
coming out soon that I will share.

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We've made some updates to our platform,
which are are really nice, but I

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don't want to keep our guests waiting.

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Too much longer.

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So what do you think?

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All right, I've been

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well, let's bring them on.

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Let's let's get this going
All right, transition.

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All right guys, welcome

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back.

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We have our very special guests Adam
Wald from creative sign design Designs,

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I'm sorry Adam is super nice to have you
this has been many months in the making.

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Yeah for sure Yeah, I want to apologize
first and foremost for getting you on

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but we're excited to have you here.

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And yeah, I make Oh, I'm excited.

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I'm excited.

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I'm excited to be on the show, uh, after
a long hiatus, uh, and excited to, to

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share with you, uh, some of, some of
the background that I have and some

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of the tips and tricks that I can, uh,
benefit the, uh, the listeners with.

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Yeah.

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So before we dive into the topic at hand,
which is going to be managing and running

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an efficient art department, why don't you
give us a little backstory on you and the

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company?

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Yeah.

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So my background, I've been in the,
uh, sign industry for 23 years now.

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It's pretty much the first, uh,
job that I got out of high school.

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You know, my friends and I, I was kind
of around the fast and the furious

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times, if a lot of you can remember that.

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And, uh, you know, me and my friends
had some fancy cars and, uh, there

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was a small speaker shop, um, and
a, and a small guy that had a very

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small closet that was doing vehicle
graphics at the time and, uh,

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developed a good relationship with him.

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And, uh, he said, Hey, go
to the sign company up.

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you know, up the street and learn
how to, you know, weed and tape

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vinyl and lay vinyl and then come
back to me and I'll give you a job.

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Um, and, uh, you know, I, I ended up
staying at that place for about, uh,

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five years, um, and, uh, learned a lot.

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And that was kind of my first
foray into the sign industry.

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I, I started without knowing a
single thing or even having a

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clue about how signs are made or,
or that there was companies that

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actually did that for a living.

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And, uh, it was a small,
it was a fast signs.

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And, uh, uh, I really like working at that
Fastlines because you get a plethora of

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different experiences, you know, from,
from, from production, installation, the

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customer service aspect of things, design
kind of in that small, uh, group setting.

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Um, and, uh, so for probably the first
two years, I just simply laid vinyl and

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things of that nature and how I got into
the design arena is we had a designer

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on staff and, uh, that designer was
probably sick of me doing the same thing,

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but I was also sick of waiting on that.

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Designer to do recuts for
vinyl and things like that.

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And so I was like, Hey,
I'm pretty tech savvy.

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Um, you know, technology is
kind of a passion of mine.

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Uh, why don't you sit down with me
and show me how you're doing it?

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Right.

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And, uh, we had a separate, uh,
machine and, um, he showed me how

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to do the recuts of the vinyl.

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And, uh, that's kind of just
where I started in the industry

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as far as design is concerned.

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I, I took a passion to that, uh,
learning how to do the recuts.

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And then I was doing my own design work.

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And, uh, you know, before, before, you
know, it, uh, within three years, I was

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a designer for that particular center.

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Um, and then, uh, uh, from there,
I kind of, branched out and did a

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plethora of different things just kind
of exploring my, uh, the industry,

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uh, within that particular franchise.

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I did some customer service work, some
outside sales and was trying to identify

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like, what would be my career path here?

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Sales definitely was not it.

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Uh, I could tell you that right now.

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Um, and, uh, uh, did a number of years as
a project manager, I'm sorry, as a, as a

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production manager at a small franchise.

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And, uh, realizing that there was only
so, so far you could go at a franchise

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and, uh, moved on to my first commercial
sign shop, uh, was a local commercial

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sign shop that did national accounts.

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And, uh, that is what really kind of
opened my eyes to what a sign company

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could be, um, you know, things like pan
form faces that a pan from face oven, you

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know, giant paint booths, you know, people
actually physically manufacturing and

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building the signs from, you know, uh, you
know, angle and tube and things like that.

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Thank you.

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My background when I
started working there.

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I was just kind of a
lowly vinyl applicator.

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Um, and, uh, uh, those of you that
are work in that franchise, uh,

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world know that the turn times
are much more aggressive than

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more of a commercial sign shop.

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So, you know, I was running laps around
everybody in the, in the vinyl shop

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and literally getting all the work done
for the whole day for vinyl by noon.

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Um, and, you know, uh, had the opportunity
from that point forward kind of twiddling

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my thumbs for the rest of the day.

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Uh, to experience things like,
uh, going out on installs and,

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um, and, uh, you know, doing
service work and things like that.

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Uh, but ultimately it kind of
got to a point where that company

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just couldn't keep me busy in
the way that I wanted to be busy.

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And, um, I went off and joined a cust
a company as in a design role doing

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rebranding for petroleum gas stations.

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Okay, and this is really where I started
to kind of really understand efficiency

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as far as design is concerned and how to
kind of better your workflow day to day.

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You know, whenever I first started
working there, a majority of petroleum

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gas station work are components based,
meaning you kind of have a brand standard

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and you're going to have, you know,
multiple different sizes of different

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signs or different graphics, depending
on the existing site conditions or

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even the new build site conditions.

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But, uh, for the most part, your
parts are kind of interchangeable.

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Um, you know, maybe the only thing
that might change is maybe the,

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the, the width, the linear length,
or something along those lines.

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And, uh, so whenever I first
started working there, we

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had a two person design team.

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And, uh, uh, it would take us
anywhere between six to eight hours

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to design a, a, uh, a petroleum
gas station start to finish.

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And what I mean by that, it would be the
pylon signs, all the canopy graphics,

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all of the pump graphics, any sort
of, uh, Graphics that might be around

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the area and those types of things,
we would develop that from scratch

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and I worked there for about 6 years.

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And by the end of the by, by the time
what we would do during that time

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period is every time we would do a 1
off, we would save it as a template.

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So a unique pump.

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A unique gas canopy size.

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You know, a unique pylon
sign, things like that.

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We would save it as a template
and there would be chances

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that we may never use it again.

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But there are that 1 off chance
that we did use it again.

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We already had.

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We've already done the design work, right?

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We can essentially just kind of pull it.

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Verify that the information is correct
and put it in our drawing and we're

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kind of done so by the time that I
left there six years later, we could

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turn full sites worth of design
work within 30 minutes to an hour.

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So, so it was in more than half.

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So it was like eight hours.

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Yes.

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To start with and down to
like 30 minutes or less.

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Correct.

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Correct.

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Obviously all of that's pending
on good survey information and

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things like that and assuming
that the information is correct.

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So that particular business, um, much
like a lot of national account businesses

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kind of put all their eggs in one basket
or a couple baskets, um, and, uh, um,

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had a couple accounts Go south on them.

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And, uh, basically, I saw kind of the
writing on the wall that this company

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isn't going to survive and in the way
that I felt comfortable sticking around.

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And, uh, you know, eventually, uh, that
business ended up, uh, kind of closing

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and I moved on to creative sign designs.

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Um, uh, I've been with creative
sign designs for 11 years.

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I started as a project coordinator at the
time and which was essentially kind of

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a beginner project manager and quickly
within the first two years moved into a

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leadership role and I managed our project
management team and from there I moved

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into managing our product management team
and our estimating team and And basically,

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for the last 6 years, I have been managing
our design team at the organization

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and my background has been in design.

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My passion's kind of been in design.

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You know, I've always kind of
wanted to be in this position.

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And, you know, 6 years ago,
there was a need at the time.

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I was actually managing estimating and
design and those of you that kind of

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Work in the industry, kind of understand
how those two can really kind of

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collaborate and produce something rather
efficient if they're communicating

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and collaborating on a daily basis.

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Um, so that was kind of
the thought process there.

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Um, and then we just grew in a way that,
um, I couldn't handle the estimating

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team, uh, myself, and I had some growth.

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00:11:56,925 --> 00:12:02,515
Uh, ideas for the design team, and,
uh, in 2018, we, uh, developed, uh,

227
00:12:02,545 --> 00:12:06,645
environmental graphic design studio, uh,
within our organization also, uh, which

228
00:12:06,645 --> 00:12:08,375
is basically our fee for service business.

229
00:12:08,385 --> 00:12:10,595
So you're, you're, you're a developer.

230
00:12:10,595 --> 00:12:11,655
You're an end user.

231
00:12:11,814 --> 00:12:13,234
Um, you don't really know what you want.

232
00:12:13,719 --> 00:12:17,409
All you simply have is marketing and
branding ideas of architectural renderings

233
00:12:17,419 --> 00:12:21,060
of your building, your interior design
renderings, and we will basically

234
00:12:21,060 --> 00:12:24,559
come up with everything for you start
to finish both interior and exterior

235
00:12:24,569 --> 00:12:29,009
graphics, all the location planning,
message scheduling, you know, and some

236
00:12:29,279 --> 00:12:33,289
ancillary items, things like master sign
plans, retail, tenant criteria and things

237
00:12:33,289 --> 00:12:35,439
like that, uh, creative sign designs.

238
00:12:35,479 --> 00:12:40,739
Um, we, uh, we are, we are on track to
do roughly 28 million dollars this year.

239
00:12:41,570 --> 00:12:47,780
Um, we do, uh, our primary business
is architectural custom, uh,

240
00:12:47,810 --> 00:12:49,280
interior and exterior signage.

241
00:12:49,550 --> 00:12:49,790
Gotcha.

242
00:12:49,850 --> 00:12:53,060
What set, what sets us apart is
we're, we're a turnkey organization.

243
00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:56,600
Uh, a lot of larger companies
either do exterior signs or interior

244
00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:58,940
signs, um, and, uh, we do it all.

245
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:00,410
We manufacture in-house.

246
00:13:00,470 --> 00:13:03,650
Um, we manufacture all of our own,
own interior signs in house, and

247
00:13:03,650 --> 00:13:06,620
we do, uh, the vast majority of
all of our design work as well.

248
00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:07,470
Wow.

249
00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:09,960
The quintessential one-stop shop.

250
00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:10,950
Yes.

251
00:13:10,950 --> 00:13:10,952
All right.

252
00:13:11,270 --> 00:13:13,240
Oh, I think it's a lot more than that.

253
00:13:13,250 --> 00:13:15,889
So let's kind of hit pause on that.

254
00:13:15,889 --> 00:13:20,319
Thank you so much for giving us
that really nice introduction

255
00:13:20,330 --> 00:13:24,149
here into the eyes of what our
listeners are listening to.

256
00:13:24,149 --> 00:13:27,170
Here's what creative designs is all about.

257
00:13:27,649 --> 00:13:29,589
I want to get into your role,
though, for a little bit.

258
00:13:29,589 --> 00:13:31,490
You said you're, you know,
okay, so you're well rounded.

259
00:13:31,905 --> 00:13:34,895
Started as a vinyl applicator, you
know, you know, that, you know, that

260
00:13:34,895 --> 00:13:39,165
business, you know, that side, you're
not a business owner, but correct.

261
00:13:39,475 --> 00:13:42,945
I want to 1st, I want to 1st kind of
get, I want to 1st ask this question

262
00:13:42,945 --> 00:13:46,725
and then I want you to kind of get
into it a little bit, but why with

263
00:13:46,725 --> 00:13:49,814
so much experience with so much, um.

264
00:13:50,540 --> 00:13:53,280
Experience in multiple,
multiple different departments.

265
00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:57,160
You've mentioned it just before
estimating design project management.

266
00:13:57,170 --> 00:14:00,360
You know, I'm sure you've you
can handle all departments.

267
00:14:00,370 --> 00:14:01,840
Why not get into owning your own

268
00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:02,330
place?

269
00:14:02,620 --> 00:14:06,010
You know, the ownership team
at creative sign designs.

270
00:14:06,110 --> 00:14:12,170
Um, allows me to develop my personal skill
sets and the skill sets of the people on

271
00:14:12,170 --> 00:14:16,099
my team and allows me to develop processes
and procedures outside of just not only

272
00:14:16,099 --> 00:14:19,519
my design team, but across the rest of
the organization will help financially

273
00:14:19,519 --> 00:14:23,219
back that if I want to play a little
bit for lack of a better term, um, and,

274
00:14:23,219 --> 00:14:24,849
and experiment a little bit, you know.

275
00:14:25,610 --> 00:14:29,610
Jamie Harden is the owner of our company
and his lovely wife, Melanie, is our is

276
00:14:29,610 --> 00:14:34,339
our vice president of human resources, and
they both allow me with the relationship

277
00:14:34,339 --> 00:14:37,790
that we've developed over the past 11
years and some of the sex successes

278
00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,579
that we've seen together to develop.

279
00:14:41,125 --> 00:14:45,165
Different aspects of the business
and create processes and procedures

280
00:14:45,165 --> 00:14:48,005
that help things run efficiently
and things of that nature.

281
00:14:48,005 --> 00:14:51,644
And that's provided comfort for
me from an income standpoint and

282
00:14:51,645 --> 00:14:54,005
from a, a job safety standpoint.

283
00:14:54,195 --> 00:14:56,195
And that's, what's important
to me and my family.

284
00:14:56,235 --> 00:14:56,694
You know what I mean?

285
00:14:56,904 --> 00:14:58,505
Um, so it's

286
00:14:58,705 --> 00:15:03,515
Sounds like it sounds like, you know,
you're comfortable putting on your, your

287
00:15:03,515 --> 00:15:08,895
director hat, your manager hat, having a
voice and really being able to collaborate

288
00:15:08,895 --> 00:15:13,544
with such a wonderful ownership team that
allow you the freedom to kind of branch

289
00:15:13,545 --> 00:15:17,144
off and explore other opportunities,
which, you know, as an owner, you might

290
00:15:17,145 --> 00:15:19,205
not actually have those benefits, right?

291
00:15:19,205 --> 00:15:24,145
You might be, you might, uh, not get
those times to, to play around in a, in

292
00:15:24,145 --> 00:15:26,235
a sandbox and explore different things.

293
00:15:26,590 --> 00:15:29,480
New technologies, and we'll
get to that here in the future.

294
00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:33,200
So, but I want to bring us back here
for a moment now that we kind of have a

295
00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:35,280
little bit of a baseline to what you do.

296
00:15:35,289 --> 00:15:37,589
You mentioned your team,
your team, your team.

297
00:15:37,590 --> 00:15:41,039
I want to kind of talk about your
team here for a quick second.

298
00:15:41,039 --> 00:15:44,650
I'm very interested as a graphic
designer as, and Brian as well.

299
00:15:45,059 --> 00:15:46,370
We love design, right?

300
00:15:47,420 --> 00:15:50,420
Recovering, recovering
designer, recovering designer.

301
00:15:50,420 --> 00:15:51,180
Yeah, sure.

302
00:15:52,070 --> 00:15:53,770
Uh, one might say that.

303
00:15:54,005 --> 00:15:58,945
Uh, this is the foundational brick that
this entire industry is built upon.

304
00:15:59,355 --> 00:15:59,595
Sure.

305
00:15:59,595 --> 00:16:03,284
Now there, there is sales,
there's customer service, right?

306
00:16:03,285 --> 00:16:06,285
There's the survey, there's the
production, the fabrication,

307
00:16:06,285 --> 00:16:07,885
the install, the service, etc.

308
00:16:08,365 --> 00:16:11,504
But all of this is built on the
foundation of design, right?

309
00:16:11,514 --> 00:16:14,875
That's the element that you
can build a business off of.

310
00:16:14,885 --> 00:16:18,575
If you remove that, you know, it kind
of like, it's like a house of cards.

311
00:16:18,575 --> 00:16:19,815
Everything kind of falls.

312
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:21,060
Around it, right?

313
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:22,850
So I want to talk about your team.

314
00:16:22,870 --> 00:16:23,720
I want to talk about your team.

315
00:16:23,730 --> 00:16:26,040
We're all we're all
interested in design here.

316
00:16:26,610 --> 00:16:28,360
Tell me a little bit about your team.

317
00:16:28,679 --> 00:16:30,310
How many members are there?

318
00:16:30,819 --> 00:16:34,319
Give me a lay of the land of
how many designs you guys pump

319
00:16:34,319 --> 00:16:36,250
out for 28 million dollars.

320
00:16:36,569 --> 00:16:38,779
I'm expecting that
number to be quite high.

321
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:40,240
So go ahead and take it from there.

322
00:16:41,300 --> 00:16:45,390
So, um, we have seven people on our,
uh, what, what I would consider kind

323
00:16:45,390 --> 00:16:46,979
of our architectural design team.

324
00:16:47,170 --> 00:16:51,929
That is kind of our day to day,
uh, uh, Q design process for

325
00:16:51,929 --> 00:16:53,010
various different projects.

326
00:16:53,010 --> 00:16:54,449
It could be bid spec work.

327
00:16:54,449 --> 00:16:56,740
It could be designed
build work from scratch.

328
00:16:57,030 --> 00:16:58,520
Um, it could be national account work.

329
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,810
And then, uh, we have two designers
on our environmental graphic design

330
00:17:01,810 --> 00:17:04,960
studio, and those are the more
consultative design professionals.

331
00:17:05,190 --> 00:17:08,009
Um, those are the people that are
consulting and interacting with clients

332
00:17:08,010 --> 00:17:11,899
directly on a daily basis, interacting
with municipalities to find out

333
00:17:11,899 --> 00:17:13,509
what's possible and things like that.

334
00:17:13,730 --> 00:17:18,450
Our, our EGD team would probably do
anywhere, roughly 50 projects a year.

335
00:17:18,685 --> 00:17:19,655
Uh, start to finish.

336
00:17:19,685 --> 00:17:25,194
Um, but on our architectural side of
things, uh, we are on track this year to,

337
00:17:25,245 --> 00:17:28,774
uh, and, and, and Brian, I know when we
talked about this last time, I gave you

338
00:17:28,774 --> 00:17:33,165
some data from last year, but we are on
track to do over 5700 design requests.

339
00:17:33,644 --> 00:17:36,365
And what I mean by a design request
is it could be something as simple

340
00:17:36,365 --> 00:17:39,555
as a 5 minute revision, but it
could be something as elaborate.

341
00:17:39,605 --> 00:17:42,465
Um, and I have a couple of people
on my team right now working

342
00:17:42,465 --> 00:17:44,865
on projects that they've been
working on for 2 straight months.

343
00:17:45,195 --> 00:17:45,515
Right.

344
00:17:45,575 --> 00:17:49,185
Just because the scale at which that
we're trying, uh, the scale at which

345
00:17:49,185 --> 00:17:53,765
of the, which the projects we're doing
right now, the complexity, the, the, uh,

346
00:17:53,985 --> 00:17:57,724
the coordination with our senior project
management team, the coordination with

347
00:17:57,724 --> 00:18:02,174
our estimating team requires that much
detail to be put on the job, you know, on

348
00:18:02,174 --> 00:18:05,475
the drawings to be able to be successful
with the installation team and, or when

349
00:18:05,475 --> 00:18:06,745
we're shipping it out to an end user.

350
00:18:06,875 --> 00:18:07,165
So.

351
00:18:07,370 --> 00:18:07,640
So

352
00:18:08,620 --> 00:18:10,140
you said over 5,

353
00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:12,130
000, is that what you said?

354
00:18:12,220 --> 00:18:14,029
700, over 5,

355
00:18:14,030 --> 00:18:14,900
700.

356
00:18:14,900 --> 00:18:16,429
Over 5, 700.

357
00:18:16,459 --> 00:18:16,749
Okay.

358
00:18:16,749 --> 00:18:17,610
I'm going to do the

359
00:18:17,610 --> 00:18:18,649
calculations here.

360
00:18:18,869 --> 00:18:20,549
I'm trying to do the calculations.

361
00:18:20,610 --> 00:18:20,820
And

362
00:18:20,820 --> 00:18:25,899
that is 814 design requests per designer.

363
00:18:25,900 --> 00:18:29,640
You have seven designers, 5, 700 requests.

364
00:18:29,940 --> 00:18:30,360
Correct.

365
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:30,570
Over 800.

366
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:35,360
That's a pretty prolific,

367
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:36,130
efficient.

368
00:18:36,130 --> 00:18:37,120
Yeah, let's break that down.

369
00:18:37,170 --> 00:18:38,520
Let's break that down even more.

370
00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:41,250
How, what is that breaking down per day?

371
00:18:41,899 --> 00:18:43,179
So, per

372
00:18:43,540 --> 00:18:48,620
design, what is it like
251 working days a year?

373
00:18:48,889 --> 00:18:49,139
Right?

374
00:18:49,170 --> 00:18:49,690
Bear with me.

375
00:18:49,690 --> 00:18:52,230
I'm just going to, I'm going
to pull up some statistics.

376
00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:55,529
I can't give you, I can't give you
necessarily broken down by day, but the

377
00:18:55,529 --> 00:18:57,679
way that we, uh, the way that we, um.

378
00:18:57,689 --> 00:19:01,514
Yeah, The process associated with
how we design thing as we use on

379
00:19:01,514 --> 00:19:03,314
architectural design nomenclature.

380
00:19:03,314 --> 00:19:08,084
So we'll we'll do schematic conceptual
designs and then we will move into

381
00:19:08,084 --> 00:19:12,044
design development and then we'll move
into fabrication level drawings between

382
00:19:12,054 --> 00:19:14,924
those different larger kind of phases.

383
00:19:14,925 --> 00:19:20,124
We have, you know, customer revisions and
things along things along those lines.

384
00:19:20,384 --> 00:19:21,309
But just to kind of put it.

385
00:19:21,429 --> 00:19:23,280
Uh, some items into perspective for you.

386
00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:24,730
Let me just and I apologize.

387
00:19:24,730 --> 00:19:26,960
I didn't know we were going to get too
far into the numbers, but I do have

388
00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,379
the numbers, which is a little bit odd
for a more creative person to have.

389
00:19:30,379 --> 00:19:32,340
So bear with me for just a second.

390
00:19:33,179 --> 00:19:33,610
That's true.

391
00:19:34,060 --> 00:19:34,560
That's fine.

392
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:35,579
Well, you're pulling that up.

393
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:37,149
I'm fascinated with 5700.

394
00:19:39,090 --> 00:19:39,810
Requests.

395
00:19:39,810 --> 00:19:40,940
I mean, I understand what that means.

396
00:19:40,940 --> 00:19:41,930
That's new requests.

397
00:19:41,940 --> 00:19:43,140
That's revisions.

398
00:19:43,170 --> 00:19:46,580
That's it is, you know, that,
that, that's, uh, that there's

399
00:19:46,630 --> 00:19:49,459
two different avenues for that.

400
00:19:49,459 --> 00:19:49,749
Right?

401
00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:55,119
So, uh, I'd like to know if you have,
um, and just for our viewers and our

402
00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:58,869
listeners out there to give a little bit
of a context here, seven designers, right?

403
00:19:58,870 --> 00:20:02,860
I mean, not a lot of our shops
have, or owners have seven

404
00:20:02,860 --> 00:20:04,900
designers, let alone two designers.

405
00:20:05,370 --> 00:20:11,050
Um, You have some that are allocated to
certain specific types of designs, and

406
00:20:11,050 --> 00:20:17,149
then you have others that maybe handle a
wider range gambit of of design requests

407
00:20:17,150 --> 00:20:21,080
right now, we'll be through that for a
2nd before we get into the number per

408
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:25,710
day, which to me kind of sounds like
you're doing like 3 or 4 requests per.

409
00:20:25,980 --> 00:20:28,860
Day per designer, at least
that's what it sounds like to me

410
00:20:29,370 --> 00:20:29,930
at a minimum.

411
00:20:29,930 --> 00:20:30,300
Yes.

412
00:20:30,430 --> 00:20:30,800
Yeah.

413
00:20:30,900 --> 00:20:31,160
Yeah.

414
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:32,120
Um,

415
00:20:32,549 --> 00:20:35,699
so without really getting into
the numbers, I mean, let's agree.

416
00:20:35,709 --> 00:20:39,269
It's like, for design
requests per designer per day.

417
00:20:39,269 --> 00:20:39,569
So.

418
00:20:40,580 --> 00:20:42,460
You know, some that that's a lot, that's

419
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:47,120
crazy a lot.

420
00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:47,530
All right.

421
00:20:47,540 --> 00:20:50,670
That's like, that's like uber crazy to me.

422
00:20:50,700 --> 00:20:51,160
Okay.

423
00:20:51,889 --> 00:20:56,189
So seeing a business like yours
and having that department

424
00:20:56,199 --> 00:20:57,509
handle that kind of bandwidth.

425
00:20:57,909 --> 00:21:00,920
Uh, I, I want to first ask you
a little bit more detail about

426
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:02,650
your team and their talents.

427
00:21:02,930 --> 00:21:08,780
So are you hiring the type of designer
that's, uh, Experienced, are they

428
00:21:08,780 --> 00:21:11,150
design like, do you have rap specialist?

429
00:21:11,150 --> 00:21:12,850
Do you have architectural specialists?

430
00:21:12,850 --> 00:21:16,760
Do you have a graphic designer
straight out of college high school?

431
00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:18,930
Tell me a little bit
about your recruiting.

432
00:21:19,140 --> 00:21:20,230
Great question, Pete.

433
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:20,570
Yeah.

434
00:21:20,570 --> 00:21:21,950
A little bit about your recruiting.

435
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:23,419
Tell me about how you hire.

436
00:21:23,419 --> 00:21:25,539
Tell me about the type
of person you look for.

437
00:21:25,839 --> 00:21:26,289
Go.

438
00:21:27,329 --> 00:21:32,729
So I primarily hire people with,
uh, a large amount of architectural

439
00:21:32,780 --> 00:21:36,240
design experience, uh, specifically
signed design experience.

440
00:21:36,270 --> 00:21:40,680
Um, We, I have been lucky in the
sense that there's enough candidates

441
00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:46,629
available to the market that I haven't
had to train somebody that's new.

442
00:21:47,459 --> 00:21:50,730
Most of the people that I hire have
this architectural signage design

443
00:21:50,730 --> 00:21:53,540
background, meaning they either come
from a background where they've designed.

444
00:21:53,900 --> 00:21:58,810
You know, uh, smaller or large scale
interior sign packages, but have a basic

445
00:21:58,830 --> 00:22:02,250
understanding number one of curl draw,
which is the primary software that we use

446
00:22:02,780 --> 00:22:07,800
number to understand basic things like,
uh, 80 a code requirements, building,

447
00:22:07,870 --> 00:22:12,349
you know, building code requirements
and just a very general understanding

448
00:22:12,350 --> 00:22:14,220
of way finding theory in general.

449
00:22:14,220 --> 00:22:16,480
So how to navigate a place and and and.

450
00:22:16,660 --> 00:22:19,770
How to think about how to navigate
a place and put that on a sign.

451
00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:23,670
The other side of it is people with
this longstanding knowledge of how

452
00:22:23,670 --> 00:22:27,469
to build a sign and have been in the
industry from quite for quite some time,

453
00:22:27,900 --> 00:22:29,450
working in various different areas.

454
00:22:29,450 --> 00:22:33,300
Maybe they came from a fabrication
fabricator at one point and had

455
00:22:33,300 --> 00:22:35,430
a desire to move into to, um.

456
00:22:35,675 --> 00:22:36,525
Uh, design.

457
00:22:36,695 --> 00:22:39,635
Um, and so they kind of already have
this manufacturing background and

458
00:22:39,635 --> 00:22:41,295
they're able to apply that on paper.

459
00:22:41,715 --> 00:22:47,185
I have, uh, you know, the age, uh,
span of the people on my team ranges

460
00:22:47,185 --> 00:22:50,865
from, you know, lower 20s up into I
have somebody that's, uh, in their

461
00:22:50,865 --> 00:22:55,675
mid 60s, you know, and, uh, but their
backgrounds range from having, uh, you

462
00:22:55,675 --> 00:22:59,075
know, different backgrounds, um, but I'm
not hiring at this point in time, uh,

463
00:22:59,095 --> 00:23:00,445
people who do not have those experience.

464
00:23:00,445 --> 00:23:03,274
I have enough people kind of in the
bandwidth and in the hopper to hire

465
00:23:03,274 --> 00:23:04,774
people with the experience needed.

466
00:23:04,774 --> 00:23:04,984
Okay.

467
00:23:04,985 --> 00:23:05,004
Thank you.

468
00:23:05,245 --> 00:23:06,155
To go down that route.

469
00:23:06,385 --> 00:23:09,585
And, uh, as far as recruiting is
concerned, I do, um, almost all

470
00:23:09,585 --> 00:23:11,655
of my own, uh, recruiting myself.

471
00:23:11,835 --> 00:23:16,055
Um, it's a combination of, you
know, uh, finding resumes and people

472
00:23:16,055 --> 00:23:17,265
that are interested in on deed.

473
00:23:17,285 --> 00:23:20,665
And just literally simply asking
people, what I do is I go on LinkedIn

474
00:23:20,665 --> 00:23:23,004
and I find the people that have the
background requirements of what I'm

475
00:23:23,005 --> 00:23:26,205
looking for, and sometimes they're
available to the industry and sometimes

476
00:23:26,205 --> 00:23:29,365
they're not, but, uh, worst case
scenario, they can say no, uh, best

477
00:23:29,365 --> 00:23:32,375
case scenario, they're interested in
talking, uh, and we kind of go from there.

478
00:23:33,390 --> 00:23:37,810
Quick follow up for me really quick just
on the type of candidate type of designer.

479
00:23:37,850 --> 00:23:40,940
Are you doing any outsourcing
remote designers in your business?

480
00:23:41,705 --> 00:23:45,195
We do not currently, um, we
entertain that from time to time.

481
00:23:45,195 --> 00:23:48,065
We are in this transitionary
period from an organization.

482
00:23:48,095 --> 00:23:50,835
Um, you know, when you kind of
get to this scale, uh, really the

483
00:23:50,835 --> 00:23:54,535
next step is to start developing
more of a design engineering team.

484
00:23:54,735 --> 00:23:57,425
Who's kind of on the backend
and that production area.

485
00:23:57,574 --> 00:24:00,595
And those people are really
using things like AutoCAD and

486
00:24:00,605 --> 00:24:02,475
solid works and things like that.

487
00:24:02,525 --> 00:24:07,005
It's kind of going beyond just the
general, uh, limitations of, of Corel

488
00:24:07,005 --> 00:24:09,115
draw, you know, those pieces of software.

489
00:24:09,155 --> 00:24:10,615
Um, uh, so.

490
00:24:11,005 --> 00:24:13,655
At some point in the future, we're
going to shift in that direction.

491
00:24:13,675 --> 00:24:17,125
You know, once we get to that, from an
efficiency standpoint, there's a lot of

492
00:24:17,125 --> 00:24:21,135
efficiencies as far as, uh, fabrication
is concerned, but when you start going

493
00:24:21,135 --> 00:24:25,515
down those, uh, uh, paths of AutoCAD and
SolidWorks, the efficiency from a design

494
00:24:25,515 --> 00:24:28,964
standpoint starts to trail off a little
bit because something that you could put

495
00:24:28,964 --> 00:24:33,050
together in a matter of a couple hours
in CorelDRAW, Could take you a week

496
00:24:33,070 --> 00:24:35,000
or two to put together in solid works.

497
00:24:35,020 --> 00:24:37,680
And now your fabricators are going to
love you because they have cut, you have

498
00:24:37,700 --> 00:24:41,280
cut sizes, they have all the angle, you
know, they have a full bill of materials

499
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:44,450
and things like that, but, uh, you
know, we have to turn and burn with the

500
00:24:44,450 --> 00:24:45,939
volume of work that we do right now.

501
00:24:46,129 --> 00:24:50,639
Well, I love it that you
are a CorelDRAW firm.

502
00:24:51,110 --> 00:24:51,700
That's right.

503
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:56,880
Everybody that's listening, that's
viewing out there that has watched my

504
00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:02,010
video on CorelDRAW versus Illustrator
versus Photoshop, whatever you want to do.

505
00:25:02,020 --> 00:25:06,090
It may not work for you, but this
software is very powerful for the type

506
00:25:06,090 --> 00:25:09,630
of shop that you want, you may want to
become when it comes to sign design.

507
00:25:10,140 --> 00:25:13,760
The software that I believe in,
I design everything in CorelDRAW.

508
00:25:13,940 --> 00:25:19,460
So I could, I could apply for a position
with your firm and know and jump right in.

509
00:25:19,814 --> 00:25:22,804
To your environment and not skip a beat.

510
00:25:22,814 --> 00:25:26,465
So if he would have you
Pete, if he would have you,

511
00:25:27,225 --> 00:25:33,654
if you would graciously accept my resume,
yes, I would be your base designer.

512
00:25:33,845 --> 00:25:34,225
Mike's

513
00:25:34,225 --> 00:25:35,864
a, Mike's a CorelDRAW guy too.

514
00:25:36,455 --> 00:25:39,425
And unfortunately, Adam, he couldn't,
he couldn't make it today because

515
00:25:39,425 --> 00:25:41,184
he's got a terrible sinus infection.

516
00:25:41,654 --> 00:25:41,824
That's fine.

517
00:25:42,650 --> 00:25:47,250
I think one of the things that stood out
to me of what you just said, and like,

518
00:25:47,260 --> 00:25:48,560
how many times have you heard this, Pete?

519
00:25:48,890 --> 00:25:50,280
It's hard to find good people.

520
00:25:50,709 --> 00:25:51,389
I can't find good people

521
00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:53,899
to work in my shop.

522
00:25:53,899 --> 00:25:54,939
Every Tuesday and Thursday.

523
00:25:55,790 --> 00:25:56,360
Every Tuesday and Thursday.

524
00:25:56,510 --> 00:25:57,709
Every Tuesday and Thursday.

525
00:25:57,709 --> 00:26:00,209
Yes, approximately at 8 30 in the morning.

526
00:26:00,509 --> 00:26:00,779
Yeah.

527
00:26:01,310 --> 00:26:04,870
I mean, what I would say to those people
personally is you're not looking for them.

528
00:26:04,879 --> 00:26:06,260
You're waiting for them to come to you.

529
00:26:06,685 --> 00:26:07,615
That's yeah, that was

530
00:26:07,635 --> 00:26:08,475
gonna be my point.

531
00:26:08,475 --> 00:26:09,115
Exactly right.

532
00:26:09,435 --> 00:26:11,865
I just heard you say you're going
out and hunting these people.

533
00:26:11,995 --> 00:26:13,205
Yeah, I don't put an ad.

534
00:26:13,445 --> 00:26:15,375
I don't put an ad out
or anything like that.

535
00:26:15,665 --> 00:26:20,745
I go and I prospect the exact person
based on their background that I want.

536
00:26:21,014 --> 00:26:22,395
And then I and then I go from there.

537
00:26:22,504 --> 00:26:25,795
And that's that's that's
what I tell everybody.

538
00:26:26,104 --> 00:26:27,385
I'm hunting after that person.

539
00:26:27,700 --> 00:26:27,960
Wow.

540
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:31,960
I am finding the skill set that I need on
my team and then I go after that person.

541
00:26:32,239 --> 00:26:33,709
That's a very unique approach.

542
00:26:33,709 --> 00:26:36,770
Definitely something that a lot
of our viewers and listeners here

543
00:26:36,790 --> 00:26:38,620
can take, uh, take away from.

544
00:26:38,969 --> 00:26:43,030
If you're a shop that you're looking
for a graphic designer, if you're,

545
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:46,429
if you just fired a graphic designer
and you need somebody to replace that

546
00:26:46,429 --> 00:26:48,029
person, it's so easy to get sucked.

547
00:26:48,230 --> 00:26:53,040
To the remote designer, you
know, outsourcing your work.

548
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,360
It's so it's so easy to go
down that rabbit hole, but you

549
00:26:56,360 --> 00:26:57,770
need somebody in your shop.

550
00:26:57,790 --> 00:26:58,649
You need a player.

551
00:26:58,650 --> 00:26:59,440
You need a voice.

552
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,769
You need somebody that can be your
guiding light in this in this business

553
00:27:03,769 --> 00:27:06,419
that we call the sign industry and.

554
00:27:06,825 --> 00:27:09,615
There might be a different way
about going after that person.

555
00:27:09,815 --> 00:27:13,235
And just like you said here, Adam,
it's more of a, I want you approach.

556
00:27:13,245 --> 00:27:15,715
You're the type of person
that I want working for me.

557
00:27:15,914 --> 00:27:20,974
Instead of putting an ad out and, and
fielding and farming resumes, you're going

558
00:27:20,994 --> 00:27:23,514
after a specific type of person based off.

559
00:27:24,085 --> 00:27:27,155
I'm assuming you're using LinkedIn
for something like, Yeah, it's, it's,

560
00:27:27,375 --> 00:27:30,565
it's, it's between LinkedIn and,
um, you know, there's a pay tier

561
00:27:30,565 --> 00:27:32,395
of Indeed, you know, where you can.

562
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:35,830
Be quite a bit more specific
about your search criteria.

563
00:27:35,940 --> 00:27:39,290
And, and then I essentially, once
I find the person's name, I do some

564
00:27:39,290 --> 00:27:42,269
research on LinkedIn and I'll typically
reach out to them on LinkedIn instead.

565
00:27:42,620 --> 00:27:43,950
Um, and that's kind of my process.

566
00:27:43,970 --> 00:27:49,390
Um, and it's worth the very minimal
cost, uh, for Indeed to, to at least

567
00:27:49,390 --> 00:27:53,330
explore it for a month and, and see what
kind of net benefit you get from being

568
00:27:53,330 --> 00:27:56,430
more aggressive and trying to reach out
to those people that you want on your

569
00:27:56,430 --> 00:28:00,190
team, rather than, you know, put out
an ad and get, and field a bunch of.

570
00:28:00,255 --> 00:28:02,795
People that may never actually
be qualified to do the job.

571
00:28:03,495 --> 00:28:03,514
All

572
00:28:03,524 --> 00:28:03,824
right.

573
00:28:03,834 --> 00:28:05,135
Well, that's a huge takeaway.

574
00:28:05,195 --> 00:28:08,014
That's a huge takeaway
for our, our listeners.

575
00:28:08,014 --> 00:28:09,405
So Brian, go ahead.

576
00:28:10,294 --> 00:28:10,635
What's,

577
00:28:10,675 --> 00:28:12,924
what's the average turnover
for you and your art

578
00:28:12,934 --> 00:28:13,434
department?

579
00:28:13,695 --> 00:28:14,615
It's pretty low.

580
00:28:14,715 --> 00:28:18,615
Um, you know, I, I am, I am going
through, I have one person leaving

581
00:28:18,615 --> 00:28:22,524
me right now, but, uh, as far as
across the organization, um, it

582
00:28:22,524 --> 00:28:25,794
is probably the lowest turnover
outside of our current sales

583
00:28:25,794 --> 00:28:26,044
team.

584
00:28:27,159 --> 00:28:27,639
Amazing.

585
00:28:27,639 --> 00:28:32,350
Low turnover, a very specific type
of hunting recruiting strategy for

586
00:28:32,350 --> 00:28:37,659
a 28 million operation that has a
seven designer design soon to be eight

587
00:28:37,699 --> 00:28:40,570
designers on your team, on their team.

588
00:28:41,090 --> 00:28:41,719
Amazing.

589
00:28:41,729 --> 00:28:42,099
Amazing.

590
00:28:42,099 --> 00:28:45,519
So tell me a little bit
more about your prophecies.

591
00:28:45,519 --> 00:28:48,699
I let's dive into that side of
this coin here a little bit.

592
00:28:48,959 --> 00:28:50,919
Tell me, tell our listeners how.

593
00:28:51,545 --> 00:28:52,865
Inquiries come in.

594
00:28:52,875 --> 00:28:54,275
Walk us through your workflow.

595
00:28:54,285 --> 00:28:55,345
You're so involved.

596
00:28:55,355 --> 00:28:58,315
You were involved in the sale
side, and I'm sure you understand

597
00:28:58,315 --> 00:29:00,705
how that side of that coin works.

598
00:29:00,705 --> 00:29:03,215
So kind of walk us through the
beginning and the front end of

599
00:29:03,215 --> 00:29:04,524
your workflow for your business

600
00:29:04,924 --> 00:29:05,374
or you.

601
00:29:05,374 --> 00:29:05,724
Yeah.

602
00:29:05,725 --> 00:29:10,494
So, so, um, the way our current
company works is it kind of depends

603
00:29:10,494 --> 00:29:12,745
on the type of business that we're
getting in at any given moment in

604
00:29:12,755 --> 00:29:16,705
time, where I'll kind of lead the
conversation is more on our design build.

605
00:29:16,705 --> 00:29:18,645
So our customer doesn't
really have anything right?

606
00:29:19,135 --> 00:29:20,564
They might have some brand assets.

607
00:29:20,565 --> 00:29:20,615
It's.

608
00:29:20,965 --> 00:29:23,504
They might have some architectural
renderings of a building that might

609
00:29:23,515 --> 00:29:26,535
have some existing photos of a building
or existing photos of some signs

610
00:29:26,535 --> 00:29:28,665
that they might want to, to revamp.

611
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:34,450
We have a fairly elaborate process,
a fairly elaborate process,

612
00:29:34,450 --> 00:29:36,540
but it's lean at the same time,
because if it's too elaborate,

613
00:29:36,540 --> 00:29:37,430
people aren't going to follow it.

614
00:29:37,430 --> 00:29:37,720
Right?

615
00:29:38,010 --> 00:29:40,489
And a lot of the processes and
procedures that I'm going to describe

616
00:29:40,489 --> 00:29:43,800
to you today don't work without
buy in from the whole organization.

617
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:44,100
Right?

618
00:29:44,130 --> 00:29:48,199
I can't just be creating and developing
design team processes without

619
00:29:48,229 --> 00:29:51,000
interaction from the other departments
that have to interact with that team.

620
00:29:51,010 --> 00:29:51,350
Right?

621
00:29:51,810 --> 00:29:55,370
So a lot of what I'm going to describe
to you has been thoroughly discussed

622
00:29:55,370 --> 00:29:59,690
with our sales, our director of sales,
our director of project management, our

623
00:29:59,690 --> 00:30:03,900
production teams and even installation
teams to develop a process that we feel

624
00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:05,629
like works best for our organization.

625
00:30:05,919 --> 00:30:10,099
So as far as going through the
process, we, we, uh, from start

626
00:30:10,099 --> 00:30:12,600
to finish, we use smart sheets.

627
00:30:13,100 --> 00:30:14,330
Um, for a queuing system.

628
00:30:14,700 --> 00:30:19,780
Um, and, uh, I have developed
a, a simple way to queue our

629
00:30:19,780 --> 00:30:22,050
tasks, uh, for the entire team.

630
00:30:22,300 --> 00:30:25,459
It also lets me develop metrics for
individuals and for by different

631
00:30:25,459 --> 00:30:29,790
phases that I described earlier on
in, in, uh, our conversation, uh, but

632
00:30:29,790 --> 00:30:32,900
essentially our account management team
and our project management team have

633
00:30:33,110 --> 00:30:34,790
a digital form that they can fill out.

634
00:30:35,410 --> 00:30:38,830
Um, and as they submit that
digital form, it basically goes

635
00:30:38,830 --> 00:30:39,999
into our design teams queue.

636
00:30:40,510 --> 00:30:44,900
Some different, uh, uh, uh, criteria that
are on those forms is, you know, the,

637
00:30:44,900 --> 00:30:49,980
the, the customer name, the address, the,
uh, the, uh, a very brief description

638
00:30:49,980 --> 00:30:52,280
of the scope of work, because that's
not really where we're describing

639
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:56,429
what the designer needs to do to do
the value potential of the project

640
00:30:56,430 --> 00:30:57,920
or a budget that might be in mind.

641
00:30:58,540 --> 00:31:02,350
For that particular project, and then
we have the account manager involved

642
00:31:02,350 --> 00:31:05,850
and then who might who might request
because it could be an account manager,

643
00:31:05,850 --> 00:31:07,669
or it could be a project manager.

644
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,590
That's requesting that particular design.

645
00:31:11,070 --> 00:31:14,159
Uh, task to be done, so I guess
people are asking, well, why do

646
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:15,279
you need all that information?

647
00:31:15,689 --> 00:31:19,029
Well, this is where some of the automation
as far as a smart sheet comes into play.

648
00:31:19,249 --> 00:31:22,569
So, basically, as a designer,
as as a task is assigned to, you

649
00:31:22,569 --> 00:31:24,459
will get a notification via email.

650
00:31:24,955 --> 00:31:26,485
You'll also be in the queue day-to-day.

651
00:31:26,490 --> 00:31:30,925
And you could sort by your particular
job, and you also get updates if I decide

652
00:31:30,925 --> 00:31:34,455
to change the date or there's updated
information, you'll get a notification

653
00:31:34,455 --> 00:31:37,815
regarding what that, that what information
changed during that time period.

654
00:31:38,115 --> 00:31:41,145
Uh, but also on the backend as
we complete that particular task.

655
00:31:41,355 --> 00:31:44,775
Uh, anybody that is in that requested
field on that Smartsheet will then be

656
00:31:44,780 --> 00:31:46,905
notified that the job is complete also.

657
00:31:47,055 --> 00:31:48,555
So, and it's all real time too.

658
00:31:48,765 --> 00:31:49,970
Any questions on that so far?

659
00:31:51,150 --> 00:31:53,420
No, I like smart sheets.

660
00:31:53,690 --> 00:31:54,500
I'm familiar with it.

661
00:31:54,870 --> 00:31:55,170
Yeah.

662
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:59,569
I haven't dove into it very deeply,
but I know some people who have.

663
00:31:59,990 --> 00:32:00,240
Yeah.

664
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,460
I mean, we, we, we decided on
smart sheets as an asset because

665
00:32:03,670 --> 00:32:06,459
it creates a lot of flexibility
for us to do what we want to do.

666
00:32:06,589 --> 00:32:06,899
Right.

667
00:32:07,885 --> 00:32:11,005
Now, does the, the whole organization
use Smartsheet as well, or

668
00:32:11,245 --> 00:32:11,875
just your department?

669
00:32:11,875 --> 00:32:15,855
So as of right now, our, our project
management team, our permitting

670
00:32:15,855 --> 00:32:19,185
team and our production team
all use Smartsheets currently.

671
00:32:19,245 --> 00:32:22,725
Uh, we are Gotcha in the process
of looking at some other solutions.

672
00:32:22,755 --> 00:32:24,255
Uh, but that is what we all currently use.

673
00:32:24,255 --> 00:32:26,325
And it's primarily just
because of the customizability.

674
00:32:26,655 --> 00:32:29,715
Uh, we are a very report driven
organization, very metric driven

675
00:32:29,715 --> 00:32:33,615
organization, and allows us to do all that
stuff in an automated way on the back end.

676
00:32:33,615 --> 00:32:37,005
So, you know, like I said, I can, I
can break down the quantity of those.

677
00:32:37,630 --> 00:32:42,460
Uh, different design requests
by individual, uh, uh, design

678
00:32:42,470 --> 00:32:45,860
phase, and then break that down by
individual designer by design phase.

679
00:32:45,870 --> 00:32:49,040
Also, I just set that all up at the
beginning and now it just kind of does

680
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:50,600
the work for me in the background.

681
00:32:50,860 --> 00:32:53,680
Um, so that's kind of the
initial kind of request process.

682
00:32:54,220 --> 00:32:55,649
Now, this is where.

683
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:01,040
From an organization standpoint, we start
to get into, um, and a lot of, a lot of

684
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:02,560
people can kind of relate to this is okay.

685
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,420
Well, how do you manage the quality
of the information that's coming in?

686
00:33:05,450 --> 00:33:05,890
Right?

687
00:33:06,370 --> 00:33:09,619
I think it's very important for
anybody in the role that I have at

688
00:33:09,620 --> 00:33:12,840
an organization, or even smaller
organizations that just have an

689
00:33:12,850 --> 00:33:14,184
individual designer to you to understand.

690
00:33:14,645 --> 00:33:17,175
review the information
as it's coming in, right?

691
00:33:17,225 --> 00:33:21,995
So, uh, uh, I am reviewing every
single design request as it comes in.

692
00:33:22,195 --> 00:33:25,305
What I'm trying to do is I'm trying
to set that designer up for success

693
00:33:25,305 --> 00:33:26,275
when they actually get to it.

694
00:33:26,285 --> 00:33:28,275
So there's various different
things that I'm doing.

695
00:33:28,305 --> 00:33:32,095
I am reviewing the quality of the
request and making sure it makes sense.

696
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,360
Because what good is a design request
if you can't even understand what

697
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:37,540
you're supposed to do there, right?

698
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:40,600
And what I'll do is I will connect
with the person that requested it, get

699
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:43,810
clarification, and either have them
rewrite the design request so that it

700
00:33:43,810 --> 00:33:47,320
does make sense, or I will rewrite it in
a way that I feel like is going to make

701
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:48,939
the most sense to my designer, right?

702
00:33:49,289 --> 00:33:52,929
I'm also reviewing any assets that might
be submitted during that design request.

703
00:33:53,069 --> 00:33:57,750
Pieces of artwork, You know, making
sure that if there's custom fonts

704
00:33:57,750 --> 00:34:01,090
that might need to be used that I'm
downloading them, or at least providing

705
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:05,039
a description of where that designer
might be able to access them via Adobe

706
00:34:05,039 --> 00:34:07,130
fonts or one of those types of things.

707
00:34:07,420 --> 00:34:11,559
And then, uh, if it does happen
to need vector artwork, we handle

708
00:34:11,559 --> 00:34:13,200
that a multitude of different ways.

709
00:34:13,230 --> 00:34:15,600
If it's something rather simple,
we'll recreate it ourselves.

710
00:34:15,885 --> 00:34:19,435
If it's a more corporate brand,
and I know that they probably have

711
00:34:19,435 --> 00:34:21,895
the logo somewhere, I'll kind of
push back on the requester to go

712
00:34:21,895 --> 00:34:23,275
get the actual vector artwork.

713
00:34:23,595 --> 00:34:27,204
Um, and then if it's something elaborate
and our customer just can't do anything

714
00:34:27,205 --> 00:34:30,184
with it, and I feel like it's going to
take our team, you know, anywhere between

715
00:34:30,185 --> 00:34:34,135
an hour or two hours to recreate, I
basically outsource the vectorization.

716
00:34:34,315 --> 00:34:37,685
I like to think of my design team
in the same way a lot of sales teams

717
00:34:37,685 --> 00:34:41,775
think of their salespeople, as what
can they generate per revenue hour.

718
00:34:42,535 --> 00:34:45,945
And, uh, you know, if I think of a
designer that could produce 5 million

719
00:34:46,205 --> 00:34:52,775
worth of designs in one year, that's
an X amount of a value per hour to me.

720
00:34:52,815 --> 00:34:56,284
And if our client isn't paying that
amount to do that vectorization, then

721
00:34:56,284 --> 00:34:59,224
it's better off that a vectorization
company does it for the minimal

722
00:34:59,224 --> 00:35:00,225
cost that they can do it for.

723
00:35:00,664 --> 00:35:02,185
So, um, don't tie

724
00:35:02,235 --> 00:35:03,095
up your team on stuff.

725
00:35:03,095 --> 00:35:03,915
That's not right.

726
00:35:03,925 --> 00:35:04,215
Right.

727
00:35:04,215 --> 00:35:04,435
Right.

728
00:35:04,435 --> 00:35:04,705
Right.

729
00:35:04,765 --> 00:35:05,175
Um.

730
00:35:05,450 --> 00:35:10,740
So once I've basically identified that
the information is either of a quality

731
00:35:10,770 --> 00:35:15,460
nature, um, and or in or provided assets
required to successfully do that, I

732
00:35:15,460 --> 00:35:16,940
will then go ahead and schedule it.

733
00:35:17,170 --> 00:35:18,810
And I aggressively schedule my team.

734
00:35:18,819 --> 00:35:20,330
I push them every single day.

735
00:35:20,380 --> 00:35:23,189
Obviously, with the volume of
work that we do, I have to.

736
00:35:23,260 --> 00:35:26,770
And a lot of what you have to do is
you have to learn your strengths and

737
00:35:26,770 --> 00:35:28,480
weaknesses of the people on your team.

738
00:35:28,730 --> 00:35:29,610
What are they good at?

739
00:35:29,820 --> 00:35:30,810
What are they quick at?

740
00:35:31,190 --> 00:35:33,100
And then assign the work
according to that, right?

741
00:35:33,140 --> 00:35:37,340
Um, so like, for the most part,
um, I can, I can schedule my team

742
00:35:37,340 --> 00:35:38,870
within the hour kind of thing.

743
00:35:38,890 --> 00:35:42,559
So if, if I have a designer that I'm
like, okay, I think this particular job

744
00:35:42,559 --> 00:35:44,140
is going to take them roughly six hours.

745
00:35:44,319 --> 00:35:45,740
They're working eight hours a day.

746
00:35:45,889 --> 00:35:49,150
There's two other jobs that I know I can
squeeze in that are going to take them

747
00:35:49,190 --> 00:35:50,710
anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour.

748
00:35:50,730 --> 00:35:53,120
I'm going to go ahead and schedule
those jobs for that, for that same day.

749
00:35:53,315 --> 00:35:53,635
Right?

750
00:35:53,995 --> 00:35:57,455
Um, so that's how we start to be very
aggressive with our turn times too.

751
00:35:57,615 --> 00:36:00,525
You know, the vast majority of our
work is turned around within two, two

752
00:36:00,525 --> 00:36:02,615
business days from a design standpoint.

753
00:36:02,814 --> 00:36:07,505
There are, there's obviously different
circumstances where the project is

754
00:36:07,505 --> 00:36:11,974
larger, uh, but across the different, um,
uh, uh, phases of design that we do, we

755
00:36:11,974 --> 00:36:13,634
turn most jobs around within two days.

756
00:36:13,875 --> 00:36:16,465
Uh, and that could be a fabrication
level drawing, a conceptual

757
00:36:16,465 --> 00:36:17,725
drawing, or what might be.

758
00:36:18,270 --> 00:36:22,020
So as a designer, as you're getting that
notification and now you're starting

759
00:36:22,020 --> 00:36:25,010
to work, how do you work efficiently
when you get that information?

760
00:36:25,230 --> 00:36:28,510
Well, we've created a lot of
assets at us as an organization.

761
00:36:28,780 --> 00:36:31,880
You know, we do, like I said, we
do interior and exterior signage.

762
00:36:32,029 --> 00:36:35,120
We have developed a lot of
sales, um, tools that also help

763
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:37,179
the estimating, uh, process.

764
00:36:37,229 --> 00:36:39,810
Um, because a lot of what I, what
we find is a lot of the time while

765
00:36:39,810 --> 00:36:42,760
customers are very involved in
what their signage looks like.

766
00:36:43,485 --> 00:36:45,345
People just want to get to a
number so they know how much

767
00:36:45,345 --> 00:36:46,185
they're going to have to spend.

768
00:36:48,765 --> 00:36:53,145
So, so, so we've developed a lot of assets
and tools to help get to that number.

769
00:36:53,414 --> 00:36:56,355
And, uh, it's in the form
of basically templates.

770
00:36:56,365 --> 00:36:58,125
So we have interior signage templates.

771
00:36:58,175 --> 00:37:01,714
It might not be exactly what the client
wants, but we've done enough interior

772
00:37:01,715 --> 00:37:06,765
sign jobs to be able to, to, to develop,
you know, some full design packages

773
00:37:06,765 --> 00:37:09,455
of all the sign types that might be
required for different market segments.

774
00:37:09,685 --> 00:37:14,965
And, um, And, uh, they have materials
sizes on them, things like that.

775
00:37:14,965 --> 00:37:16,735
So our sales team could sell that number.

776
00:37:16,915 --> 00:37:19,975
And then what it does is it puts
guardrails from a design standpoint on the

777
00:37:19,995 --> 00:37:24,085
types of materials, the sizes, things like
that, that they have to design with them.

778
00:37:24,145 --> 00:37:24,485
Right.

779
00:37:24,664 --> 00:37:27,864
So that's one of the tools that we
use to help kind of the sales process

780
00:37:27,864 --> 00:37:31,195
be a little bit more efficient and
then provide us essentially kind of an

781
00:37:31,205 --> 00:37:35,325
outline scope of work as far as materials
and sizes that we can design within.

782
00:37:35,425 --> 00:37:36,395
And then, uh.

783
00:37:37,015 --> 00:37:39,095
Just collective creative assets.

784
00:37:39,145 --> 00:37:41,935
Everybody's been in that scenario
where you're kind of burnt down.

785
00:37:41,935 --> 00:37:44,005
You're like, Oh, my gosh, I got
to do one more option for this.

786
00:37:44,005 --> 00:37:46,795
And I just I just can't
think of anything right.

787
00:37:47,365 --> 00:37:51,494
Um, what we do or what we try and
do is we try and collect assets

788
00:37:51,495 --> 00:37:52,925
that weren't used in the past.

789
00:37:53,025 --> 00:37:53,655
So.

790
00:37:54,225 --> 00:37:57,185
For the most part, most of our
conceptual design schematic designs

791
00:37:57,235 --> 00:38:02,035
are, um, we do three options, one
selected, and then those other two

792
00:38:02,074 --> 00:38:03,685
just kind of go by the wayside, right?

793
00:38:03,694 --> 00:38:07,994
So what we try and do is we try and
collect those options and potentially

794
00:38:07,995 --> 00:38:10,975
utilize them on other jobs that might
be applicable and using different

795
00:38:10,975 --> 00:38:12,329
finishes and things like that.

796
00:38:12,590 --> 00:38:17,230
We also have a lot, have a lot of,
uh, inspirational, uh, assets, um, for

797
00:38:17,260 --> 00:38:21,219
interior signs, exterior signs, and things
like that to help, uh, inspire the design

798
00:38:21,219 --> 00:38:26,400
team to create something unique based on,
uh, what other, um, you know, uh, other

799
00:38:26,420 --> 00:38:28,140
inspirational images, things like that.

800
00:38:28,569 --> 00:38:32,340
I like the fact that you are like
constraining the design process,

801
00:38:32,350 --> 00:38:36,200
because that's really like, Hey,
when I look at design, like that's a

802
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,220
challenge in signage, is it like you're.

803
00:38:38,795 --> 00:38:43,945
You're only limited to what you can
build, basically, and unless you

804
00:38:44,195 --> 00:38:49,664
like design is like, it works best
when you're constrained to something.

805
00:38:50,465 --> 00:38:54,105
So, like, when I was in the print
shop, like designing a T shirt

806
00:38:55,124 --> 00:38:57,385
take me like 20 minutes, right?

807
00:38:57,385 --> 00:39:02,635
Because it's like, Hey, I've
got a 10 by 14 area and it's

808
00:39:02,645 --> 00:39:05,105
got to be 1 to 8 colors, right?

809
00:39:05,655 --> 00:39:08,855
But with signage and especially the type
of work that you guys do where it's.

810
00:39:09,470 --> 00:39:13,730
Everything interior, everything
exterior, like there's a lot of decisions

811
00:39:13,730 --> 00:39:15,270
that have to be made there just for

812
00:39:16,170 --> 00:39:16,970
every sign.

813
00:39:17,010 --> 00:39:17,300
Yep.

814
00:39:17,810 --> 00:39:18,009
Yeah.

815
00:39:18,009 --> 00:39:22,210
Well, essentially what I'm trying to do
from managing the team is I'm trying to

816
00:39:22,210 --> 00:39:26,890
take the scenario where a designer is
sitting there trying to figure out what

817
00:39:26,890 --> 00:39:30,280
they need to design and they can actually
spend the time designing it, right?

818
00:39:30,350 --> 00:39:32,210
Um, so they have all the assets.

819
00:39:32,700 --> 00:39:37,500
They have all the inspirational, uh, uh,
uh, imagery or, uh, you know, interior

820
00:39:37,500 --> 00:39:42,719
design, mood boards, finishes, things
like that, that they need to, to, to be

821
00:39:42,720 --> 00:39:46,070
able to just go in and start designing
rather than sitting there and, and,

822
00:39:46,070 --> 00:39:49,400
and really trying to figure out what
they need to design to begin with.

823
00:39:49,770 --> 00:39:52,630
And, and that's kind of been
my motivator of, of, of.

824
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:56,030
Developing a more efficient team by
reviewing those documents ahead of

825
00:39:56,030 --> 00:40:00,380
time to prepare them for success and
knowing that they can open up the design

826
00:40:00,380 --> 00:40:02,900
requests, all the assets are going
to be exactly what they're expecting.

827
00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:04,420
And they can just move right into design.

828
00:40:04,620 --> 00:40:04,910
Gotcha.

829
00:40:04,950 --> 00:40:06,920
Now, like some of these
templates that you've developed,

830
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:08,560
like, are you including that?

831
00:40:09,255 --> 00:40:12,645
When you schedule that request or
they're like going and hunting that down.

832
00:40:12,655 --> 00:40:12,925
Like

833
00:40:13,155 --> 00:40:18,005
we have, we basically have it as a,
a, a global template that everybody

834
00:40:18,005 --> 00:40:20,545
kind of knows about our sales team
is using it when they're doing their

835
00:40:20,545 --> 00:40:23,624
account take us on the very, on
the very front end of the project.

836
00:40:23,654 --> 00:40:27,105
Um, and, uh, and then our design
team will essentially know that it's.

837
00:40:27,490 --> 00:40:30,130
The available asset that was used
during that time period and to

838
00:40:30,130 --> 00:40:31,530
design within those constraints.

839
00:40:31,530 --> 00:40:31,880
Right.

840
00:40:32,340 --> 00:40:32,700
Gotcha.

841
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:33,620
Gotcha.

842
00:40:33,830 --> 00:40:38,049
So like, what does the, what's
the day to day look like for

843
00:40:38,049 --> 00:40:39,540
you guys within the department?

844
00:40:39,799 --> 00:40:40,379
Like, is it, I

845
00:40:40,379 --> 00:40:42,659
mean, it's pretty chaotic
as you can imagine.

846
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:48,460
Um, you know, it, it is, um, it is,
uh, lots of manipulating the schedule.

847
00:40:48,650 --> 00:40:49,880
Um, I am, I am.

848
00:40:50,495 --> 00:40:53,165
In the schedule all day, every single day.

849
00:40:53,225 --> 00:40:57,045
Um, and I, I basically have some, uh,
conditional formatting that allows me

850
00:40:57,065 --> 00:40:58,985
to visualize things as they come in.

851
00:40:59,315 --> 00:41:03,425
And, uh, you know, depending on the scale
of what the request is, you know, as

852
00:41:03,425 --> 00:41:06,265
of right now, and really kind of since
March, I've been basically designing

853
00:41:06,284 --> 00:41:09,304
all day, every single day, just because
of the volume of work we have going on.

854
00:41:09,514 --> 00:41:10,129
But, uh.

855
00:41:10,670 --> 00:41:16,360
If, if it's something rather simple and
I can keep the rest of my designers out

856
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:21,610
of it and have them working on the more
elaborate, longer scale, longer term

857
00:41:21,610 --> 00:41:23,539
projects, then I'm going to do it myself.

858
00:41:23,590 --> 00:41:26,850
So I, as that information comes
in, I'm immediately reviewing it.

859
00:41:26,890 --> 00:41:27,709
If the assets.

860
00:41:27,940 --> 00:41:29,360
Or the information isn't clear.

861
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:31,360
I'm immediately getting with
the person that requested it.

862
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:32,870
So I can attack it right away, right?

863
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,780
We attack our design
queue on a daily basis.

864
00:41:35,909 --> 00:41:39,139
And, uh, you know, if you spoke to the
people on my team, sometimes, you know,

865
00:41:39,180 --> 00:41:43,499
it's, it's a little overwhelming for
them, uh, but, uh, they do a great job of

866
00:41:43,500 --> 00:41:47,339
staying ahead and, and, uh, in my opinion,
from a creative standpoint, if you can

867
00:41:47,340 --> 00:41:51,140
stay ahead and you don't have this burden
of just this backlog of design work to do,

868
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,889
you can be your most creative and, and,
and, and produce the best quality product.

869
00:41:54,890 --> 00:41:56,070
And that's what, that's
what we're trying to do.

870
00:41:56,700 --> 00:41:56,960
Yeah.

871
00:41:57,310 --> 00:42:00,740
One question I've got that's came
up a lot for our folks that are,

872
00:42:01,220 --> 00:42:03,010
they do everything like you guys do.

873
00:42:03,860 --> 00:42:05,160
How are you juggling?

874
00:42:05,180 --> 00:42:09,059
Like this, this request is going
to take 20 minutes and I've got 12

875
00:42:09,059 --> 00:42:13,370
of those that need to go out in the
next six hours versus like, Hey,

876
00:42:13,379 --> 00:42:15,159
this project is a longer project.

877
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:15,759
That's going to take.

878
00:42:16,070 --> 00:42:19,520
A couple of weeks to get all the assets,
but we've got to make progress on it every

879
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,290
single day to make sure that we hit the

880
00:42:22,300 --> 00:42:22,920
timelines.

881
00:42:23,370 --> 00:42:27,409
I think it's, it's, uh, obviously this is
where kind of manipulating the schedule

882
00:42:27,409 --> 00:42:30,700
and having a team that is on board with
potentially doing other people's work.

883
00:42:30,710 --> 00:42:32,749
I think in a perfect world,
everybody wants to be able to

884
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:34,110
start their same project and.

885
00:42:35,605 --> 00:42:39,135
Um, but, uh, you can imagine with
the volume of work and, and, and the

886
00:42:39,155 --> 00:42:42,365
complexity of custom signage that
that's just not the way that the real

887
00:42:42,365 --> 00:42:43,894
life, you know, the real world works.

888
00:42:43,895 --> 00:42:46,605
So, you know, I have, I have a
particular designer right now.

889
00:42:46,605 --> 00:42:48,615
That's been working on
a 2 month long project.

890
00:42:48,615 --> 00:42:53,474
And it's essentially kind of just, uh, on
call for lack of a better term, waiting

891
00:42:53,515 --> 00:42:57,405
for information from the field to be
able to attack because we have a very.

892
00:42:57,620 --> 00:43:01,730
Tight schedule to get the job
done so I can't put her on

893
00:43:01,730 --> 00:43:03,140
any large project right now.

894
00:43:03,140 --> 00:43:06,470
So she just basically fills in
smaller things from time to time.

895
00:43:06,470 --> 00:43:09,360
Quick revisions, quick schematic
designs and things like that.

896
00:43:09,590 --> 00:43:13,570
As she's kind of waiting on that
larger piece of information and I

897
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:16,910
have essentially kind of cleared
her schedule and any projects that

898
00:43:16,910 --> 00:43:18,150
I would normally have her work on.

899
00:43:18,190 --> 00:43:22,100
I've basically either delegated to the
rest of the team or I'll knock them out

900
00:43:22,100 --> 00:43:23,610
myself, depending on the complexity of it.

901
00:43:24,350 --> 00:43:24,710
Gotcha.

902
00:43:24,900 --> 00:43:25,160
Yeah.

903
00:43:25,160 --> 00:43:28,900
So having, well, you guys have
seven designers, but essentially

904
00:43:28,900 --> 00:43:31,850
like a, like the six man on a
basketball team or something.

905
00:43:31,850 --> 00:43:32,040
Yeah.

906
00:43:34,169 --> 00:43:34,289
That's

907
00:43:34,290 --> 00:43:34,700
smart.

908
00:43:35,389 --> 00:43:40,904
Um, what's, uh, do you have any other
like tips and tricks that you would like?

909
00:43:41,235 --> 00:43:45,435
Like what, what would your advice
be to somebody who maybe has one or

910
00:43:45,435 --> 00:43:48,435
two or three designers, you know,
they've got a small design team,

911
00:43:48,435 --> 00:43:49,995
which is, I, that's probably the

912
00:43:49,995 --> 00:43:50,535
average.

913
00:43:50,655 --> 00:43:50,925
Yeah.

914
00:43:50,990 --> 00:43:53,865
I mean, I, I per, I personally
think that developing assets

915
00:43:53,865 --> 00:43:55,635
ahead of time is one of the key.

916
00:43:56,355 --> 00:44:00,585
Differentiators, um, for our
particular team to be able to be

917
00:44:00,585 --> 00:44:02,145
successful and efficient, right?

918
00:44:02,175 --> 00:44:06,545
So we have developed, um, design
manufacturing standards for a lot of the

919
00:44:06,545 --> 00:44:09,455
common side types that a lot of people
are using an architectural side edge.

920
00:44:09,455 --> 00:44:10,614
You know, your flat cut out letters.

921
00:44:10,615 --> 00:44:11,634
What are our tolerances?

922
00:44:11,995 --> 00:44:12,954
What kind of thicknesses?

923
00:44:13,034 --> 00:44:14,664
What kind of studs are we
going to put in different

924
00:44:14,675 --> 00:44:16,175
thicknesses and things like that?

925
00:44:16,395 --> 00:44:19,535
Um, channel letters, pile
on signs, monument signs.

926
00:44:19,535 --> 00:44:26,915
Having a standard to start with, in my
opinion, is the best way to Uh, manage

927
00:44:27,215 --> 00:44:31,555
the fabrication level drawing process,
which tends to take a little bit longer

928
00:44:31,555 --> 00:44:34,834
than some of the other processes are
concerned and having buy in from your

929
00:44:34,834 --> 00:44:39,025
manufacturing team or in the cases where
you might be outsourcing fabrication,

930
00:44:39,265 --> 00:44:41,014
developing and coordinating with them.

931
00:44:41,124 --> 00:44:44,585
And I promise you, you're out your
wholesale customers or your wholesale

932
00:44:45,035 --> 00:44:47,875
manufacturers are going to be
interested in that because they're the

933
00:44:47,875 --> 00:44:49,475
net result of what you're producing.

934
00:44:49,475 --> 00:44:49,735
Right?

935
00:44:49,745 --> 00:44:53,955
So if they have their own section views
and things like that, that you could be.

936
00:44:53,975 --> 00:44:56,225
Borrowing from them to
include in your drawings.

937
00:44:56,225 --> 00:44:58,175
It's going to only gonna make
their shop more efficient.

938
00:44:58,175 --> 00:44:58,925
Also, right?

939
00:44:59,055 --> 00:45:03,935
The other thing, um, also is communication
across the whole organization.

940
00:45:04,155 --> 00:45:07,285
Um, like I said, none of the processes
and procedures that I that I'm

941
00:45:07,285 --> 00:45:11,175
describing to you today work unless
you have buy in from the sales team.

942
00:45:11,515 --> 00:45:15,365
The account management team, or even
if it's not a team, if it's just a

943
00:45:15,365 --> 00:45:18,925
sales person in general, you know,
developing a good workflow between

944
00:45:18,945 --> 00:45:24,855
design and sales is a key part of your
process and the growth and development

945
00:45:24,955 --> 00:45:28,275
of your, of your sales team and the
growth and development of your design

946
00:45:28,275 --> 00:45:32,505
team, your design team understands
why sales, you know, the types of.

947
00:45:32,915 --> 00:45:37,075
Assets that a sales team needs to be
successful from a sales standpoint,

948
00:45:37,095 --> 00:45:40,415
then it's kind of perfect harmony
from a, from an efficiency standpoint.

949
00:45:40,705 --> 00:45:44,005
Um, and then on the backend, if your
production team is collaborating,

950
00:45:44,035 --> 00:45:48,275
providing feedback on specifications that
we're including, uh, or not including,

951
00:45:48,505 --> 00:45:52,805
and, uh, uh, can help us fill in that
gap and create a better standard so

952
00:45:52,805 --> 00:45:55,695
that we don't either keep making the
same mistake, or we're creating a more

953
00:45:55,695 --> 00:45:59,965
streamlined design environment, um, then
it's beneficial for everybody as well.

954
00:46:00,165 --> 00:46:01,725
And then the other thing
that I would say is.

955
00:46:02,645 --> 00:46:06,125
One, one other differentiator for us
is, uh, you know, Jamie and Melanie

956
00:46:06,135 --> 00:46:09,715
have allowed our design team to
purchase things like stock photo

957
00:46:09,735 --> 00:46:11,365
subscriptions and things like that.

958
00:46:11,645 --> 00:46:15,614
And, uh, you know, those are just kind
of the, the, the, the spicier ways

959
00:46:15,624 --> 00:46:19,804
to, to, to enhance and embellish, you
know, your, your kind of basic boring

960
00:46:19,814 --> 00:46:24,195
interior sign, uh, project that, that
most people are just doing kind of one

961
00:46:24,195 --> 00:46:28,084
color backgrounds, you know, one color
tactile copy on, you know, we have

962
00:46:28,084 --> 00:46:29,795
the ability to go in and out of these.

963
00:46:29,815 --> 00:46:32,495
You know, uh, stock
photo websites and get.

964
00:46:32,890 --> 00:46:35,990
You know, textures and different
vector art, stock vector artwork and

965
00:46:35,990 --> 00:46:38,700
things like that, and apply them to
our designs to really embellish them.

966
00:46:38,930 --> 00:46:42,300
Um, and we've, I've created a couple of
assets to, to really show our design team,

967
00:46:42,300 --> 00:46:46,910
how, you know, here's how we were doing
things in the past, you know, in the past

968
00:46:46,910 --> 00:46:50,099
with just kind of basic solid colors,
and here's how you can really transform

969
00:46:50,099 --> 00:46:53,570
a design using some of these very basic
embellishments that we are able to pull

970
00:46:53,570 --> 00:46:57,470
from these, uh, different assets that we
can, that we have unlimited access to.

971
00:46:57,820 --> 00:46:58,040
Yeah.

972
00:46:58,190 --> 00:46:58,540
Nice.

973
00:46:59,109 --> 00:47:01,030
Um, I think, I think we
actually had, what was the.

974
00:47:01,655 --> 00:47:03,355
Was it communication breakdown, Pete?

975
00:47:03,525 --> 00:47:08,585
Like, one of those episodes that we
had, like, the biggest drop is usually

976
00:47:08,645 --> 00:47:12,224
the handoff between departments, and it
seems like you guys have mastered it.

977
00:47:12,655 --> 00:47:16,614
Like, what are the specific things
that you guys are doing to facilitate

978
00:47:16,955 --> 00:47:18,855
that communication across departments?

979
00:47:19,225 --> 00:47:19,895
So,

980
00:47:19,934 --> 00:47:20,554
um...

981
00:47:20,995 --> 00:47:22,905
We do we do a number of different things.

982
00:47:22,935 --> 00:47:23,675
Number one.

983
00:47:23,755 --> 00:47:29,045
I basically coach my team that regardless
of how simplistic the design request

984
00:47:29,054 --> 00:47:32,785
that's been written to you is I want
you to call the person and verify that

985
00:47:32,785 --> 00:47:34,245
that's exactly what they want, right?

986
00:47:34,535 --> 00:47:38,784
Um, so that helps break down
some of the initial assumptions,

987
00:47:38,784 --> 00:47:40,665
regardless of how simple it is.

988
00:47:40,905 --> 00:47:44,025
And, uh, you know, we're talking
on a regular basis with the people

989
00:47:44,025 --> 00:47:45,515
that are requesting these designs.

990
00:47:45,765 --> 00:47:47,944
Um, and I don't know if I
share this with you, but yeah.

991
00:47:48,135 --> 00:47:51,845
The vast majority of our design team
is remote, and so we are interacting

992
00:47:51,845 --> 00:47:54,345
with our sales team and our product
management team, you know, through

993
00:47:54,345 --> 00:47:57,655
teams calls and on a regular basis.

994
00:47:57,655 --> 00:48:03,294
I mean, I make 40 or 50 calls a day
to people to get clarification, just

995
00:48:03,295 --> 00:48:06,545
make sure I'm on the right track from
a design standpoint, because we are

996
00:48:06,555 --> 00:48:10,895
reading and interpreting something that's
something that somebody else Throat.

997
00:48:10,895 --> 00:48:11,225
Right.

998
00:48:11,525 --> 00:48:14,975
Um, and it could be something as simple,
you know, I, I had a conversation on

999
00:48:14,975 --> 00:48:19,685
just a very basic 18 inch by 24 inch
aluminum sign on a post and panel

1000
00:48:19,685 --> 00:48:20,945
sign this morning, and I was like.

1001
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:23,060
Are you sure this is how
you want this to look?

1002
00:48:23,070 --> 00:48:25,740
And I could share my screen
and get feedback in real time

1003
00:48:25,740 --> 00:48:27,010
from that particular person.

1004
00:48:27,030 --> 00:48:30,070
And, you know, got the confirmation that
yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

1005
00:48:30,300 --> 00:48:32,880
Now I can close out the design request
and send them the proof and I'm done.

1006
00:48:32,950 --> 00:48:33,280
Right?

1007
00:48:33,820 --> 00:48:35,080
So that's 1 aspect of it.

1008
00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:38,949
The other aspect of it is when we get
into some of the larger projects or some

1009
00:48:38,950 --> 00:48:42,250
of the more complex projects, we have a
project kickoff meeting and that's where

1010
00:48:42,250 --> 00:48:46,110
we have an opportunity for our project
management team or a project manager

1011
00:48:46,110 --> 00:48:47,450
that's been assigned to the project.

1012
00:48:47,985 --> 00:48:50,705
Representatives from the production
facility that might be involved in

1013
00:48:50,705 --> 00:48:54,405
the manufacturing of that, uh, the
estimator that estimated the project

1014
00:48:54,445 --> 00:48:57,785
and then the assigned designer to
basically sit down together and say,

1015
00:48:57,975 --> 00:48:59,315
how do we want to accomplish this?

1016
00:48:59,345 --> 00:48:59,755
Right?

1017
00:48:59,935 --> 00:49:04,244
And, uh, it could be in the form of here
are the value engineered options that

1018
00:49:04,245 --> 00:49:06,375
were offered during the estimating period.

1019
00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:09,080
Um, or here are some technical
difficulties that we might

1020
00:49:09,110 --> 00:49:10,580
experience during this process.

1021
00:49:10,580 --> 00:49:13,530
And we need to we need to work
together to develop solutions to

1022
00:49:13,530 --> 00:49:14,860
make this actually successful.

1023
00:49:15,170 --> 00:49:19,030
Um, and we've started to do that
quite a bit more on on the vast

1024
00:49:19,030 --> 00:49:20,589
majority of our larger projects.

1025
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:22,680
And we've seen a lot of success.

1026
00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:25,920
Um, it gives production an opportunity to
communicate how they might want to build

1027
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:28,700
something that might be different than how
a designer might want to build something.

1028
00:49:28,970 --> 00:49:30,740
Uh, so they get a say in
the process and then it.

1029
00:49:30,995 --> 00:49:33,965
Furthermore, it's creating buy in when
that job actually hits the shop floor.

1030
00:49:33,965 --> 00:49:36,875
They're not blindsided, but some wild
manufacturing method that they've

1031
00:49:36,875 --> 00:49:38,215
never heard about before, right?

1032
00:49:38,645 --> 00:49:44,425
It also gives an opportunity to identify
materials and or manufacturing methods

1033
00:49:44,425 --> 00:49:47,265
that we want to proceed with, but we
don't have the capabilities internally

1034
00:49:47,265 --> 00:49:51,544
to do and decide where we want that
capability to go to from, you know, from

1035
00:49:51,544 --> 00:49:56,044
an out plant standpoint, uh, to outsource
that particular manufacturing method.

1036
00:49:56,074 --> 00:49:59,949
So I think those two areas for
us is one of the key for us.

1037
00:50:00,310 --> 00:50:03,310
Parts of trying to prevent
news communication.

1038
00:50:03,400 --> 00:50:07,790
Um, but I would say just the key takeaway
in general is just the collaboration of

1039
00:50:07,790 --> 00:50:09,310
the person that might be requesting that.

1040
00:50:09,900 --> 00:50:12,789
And in those cases where you don't
have that kind of buffer zone of

1041
00:50:12,789 --> 00:50:17,069
somebody requesting that getting on a
team's call or a zoom meeting with the

1042
00:50:17,069 --> 00:50:18,854
client and just saying, hey, look, I.

1043
00:50:19,085 --> 00:50:22,015
I want to make sure that we're on
the same page or, you know, just a

1044
00:50:22,235 --> 00:50:26,245
simple email of like a, of a, of a
screenshot of the proof or whatever,

1045
00:50:26,415 --> 00:50:28,685
uh, just to make sure you're on the
same, the right path with the client

1046
00:50:28,715 --> 00:50:30,135
before you kind of finish that thing.

1047
00:50:31,275 --> 00:50:34,694
I think you might've mentioned
the remote thing to me previously.

1048
00:50:34,695 --> 00:50:39,825
I forgot to include that in my notes, but
is that part of the reason why you can

1049
00:50:40,165 --> 00:50:42,605
like go out and hunt these specific people

1050
00:50:42,605 --> 00:50:42,945
as well?

1051
00:50:44,725 --> 00:50:45,245
It is.

1052
00:50:45,675 --> 00:50:48,595
So, you know, like I said,
Melanie and Jamie have been.

1053
00:50:48,940 --> 00:50:53,580
Very trusting in my, uh, methodology
as far as recruiting is concerned.

1054
00:50:53,590 --> 00:50:55,750
Um, we've had a lot of
success for, with it.

1055
00:50:55,780 --> 00:50:59,780
And, uh, while where I live, which is in
the Tampa market, uh, the Tampa, Florida

1056
00:50:59,780 --> 00:51:02,189
area, there is a ton of sign shops.

1057
00:51:02,189 --> 00:51:04,759
I think, I think the last time we
looked, it was probably, it's probably

1058
00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:06,669
well over 200, 200 sign shops.

1059
00:51:07,060 --> 00:51:10,820
Uh, there's a plethora of different
people to, uh, choose from, but not

1060
00:51:10,820 --> 00:51:13,920
with the very niche type of business
that we're involved with right now.

1061
00:51:14,145 --> 00:51:14,785
You know what I mean?

1062
00:51:15,265 --> 00:51:19,745
I can find, uh, you know, a plethora of
different people to do, um, you know,

1063
00:51:19,755 --> 00:51:21,075
vehicle wraps and things like that.

1064
00:51:21,075 --> 00:51:24,004
But, um, the, the, it starts to
get a little bit nichier when you

1065
00:51:24,005 --> 00:51:27,665
need somebody to build a monument,
uh, signed from scratch, uh,

1066
00:51:27,665 --> 00:51:29,205
on, on, uh, you know, in Corel.

1067
00:51:30,115 --> 00:51:30,415
Sure.

1068
00:51:30,545 --> 00:51:30,905
Absolutely.

1069
00:51:31,845 --> 00:51:35,455
So as we try to bring this one to
an end and I feel like we could

1070
00:51:35,455 --> 00:51:36,635
probably talk for hours, man.

1071
00:51:36,655 --> 00:51:37,295
Oh, for sure.

1072
00:51:37,305 --> 00:51:40,895
Just like a fountain of knowledge
about the, the industry.

1073
00:51:41,215 --> 00:51:46,935
But you know, like I, I've been watching
AI over like the last six months and like

1074
00:51:47,175 --> 00:51:52,245
things are like starting to go at a way
faster rate than what I thought they were.

1075
00:51:52,765 --> 00:51:56,845
Are you guys leveraging any like AI
day to day or anything like that?

1076
00:51:56,865 --> 00:51:58,305
Do you have plans to like?

1077
00:52:00,340 --> 00:52:04,150
So, so I, I mean, for the first time
with some of these new features, um,

1078
00:52:04,150 --> 00:52:07,539
and I was on the beta for, for Photoshop
and Illustrator where they started to

1079
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:09,460
integrate some of the generative AI.

1080
00:52:09,660 --> 00:52:13,540
Um, I found like actual
useful purposes for the AI.

1081
00:52:13,740 --> 00:52:16,600
Um, and that is essentially, you know,
when you're doing like wall graphics

1082
00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:19,290
or something like that, and your client
is providing you like kind of a low

1083
00:52:19,290 --> 00:52:22,710
resolution JPEG and you want to blow
that up to the best of your ability.

1084
00:52:22,940 --> 00:52:24,710
Number one, to, to try and.

1085
00:52:25,145 --> 00:52:28,825
You know, create a vector version of that
to clean it up a little bit, but just

1086
00:52:28,825 --> 00:52:32,905
kind of fill in that gap of area that
you're trying to, to, to, to fill in.

1087
00:52:32,915 --> 00:52:33,205
Right.

1088
00:52:33,235 --> 00:52:36,624
Um, and also when you're trying
to edit photos and things like

1089
00:52:36,625 --> 00:52:39,255
that, and you're trying to get
very complex objects out of it.

1090
00:52:39,580 --> 00:52:45,510
Um, I've found the generative AI tools
to be absolutely mind blowing for

1091
00:52:45,510 --> 00:52:47,030
their ability to do stuff like that.

1092
00:52:47,180 --> 00:52:51,920
And I know Illustrator has just started to
dabble in it, and uh, I haven't personally

1093
00:52:51,929 --> 00:52:55,250
had any, uh, useful success with it.

1094
00:52:55,825 --> 00:52:59,425
But, uh, you know, uh, Illustrator
has come a long way from some of

1095
00:52:59,435 --> 00:53:01,955
the initial betas, even when they
had kind of some of the initial

1096
00:53:01,955 --> 00:53:03,405
measuring tools and things like that.

1097
00:53:03,405 --> 00:53:07,545
So, uh, I'm confident that at some point
they'll have some real practical uses

1098
00:53:07,545 --> 00:53:11,814
for it, but currently I haven't found a
particular practical use as far as AI,

1099
00:53:12,105 --> 00:53:13,495
at least in what we're doing currently.

1100
00:53:13,915 --> 00:53:14,385
Gotcha.

1101
00:53:14,535 --> 00:53:14,825
Gotcha.

1102
00:53:14,865 --> 00:53:15,065
Yeah.

1103
00:53:15,585 --> 00:53:16,935
Like, Hey, what are your thoughts?

1104
00:53:16,945 --> 00:53:20,025
Just like, you know, being
a student of design and like

1105
00:53:20,025 --> 00:53:21,725
a lifelong lover of design.

1106
00:53:21,735 --> 00:53:24,404
Like, what are your, do
you have concerns on AI?

1107
00:53:24,425 --> 00:53:24,725
Like,

1108
00:53:25,605 --> 00:53:30,715
I don't, um, I think if we were
probably more in the graphics world

1109
00:53:30,715 --> 00:53:33,895
and things like that, um, and a good
chunk of our business was more on

1110
00:53:33,895 --> 00:53:35,325
kind of that printed graphics world.

1111
00:53:35,625 --> 00:53:39,205
I, I, I might be a little bit more
concerned, just more from a design

1112
00:53:39,205 --> 00:53:42,405
standpoint, but, uh, with the
complexity of things, I mean, I, I

1113
00:53:42,405 --> 00:53:47,360
would, I would, um, Some AI tools to
be able to develop the ability to,

1114
00:53:47,590 --> 00:53:51,650
you know, uh, space out angle and a
monument sign and stuff like that.

1115
00:53:51,650 --> 00:53:53,060
Like this, I want that right now.

1116
00:53:53,490 --> 00:53:54,119
You know what I mean?

1117
00:53:54,430 --> 00:53:57,960
Um, so until it gets to that point
or like, you know, you, you get some

1118
00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:00,799
of the bigger companies, like, um,
you know, or you get like a bigger

1119
00:54:00,799 --> 00:54:02,840
company, like AutoCAD or solid works.

1120
00:54:02,870 --> 00:54:05,020
And, you know, one of those
companies starting to integrate some

1121
00:54:05,020 --> 00:54:06,290
of that into what they're doing.

1122
00:54:06,580 --> 00:54:09,970
Um, so you're not having to build some of
that stuff from scratch, you know, then

1123
00:54:09,970 --> 00:54:11,719
we'll probably take a harder look at it.

1124
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:15,330
Yeah, that kind of lines
up with my thought.

1125
00:54:15,340 --> 00:54:19,370
Like, you guys are like, so far on
the like, specific, specific, like,

1126
00:54:19,370 --> 00:54:21,169
niche scale that it's like, yeah,

1127
00:54:21,460 --> 00:54:25,590
he just, he just poked the bear,
you know, he just poked the bear.

1128
00:54:25,590 --> 00:54:29,679
He just, he just put everybody, every
1 of those companies on high alert

1129
00:54:29,680 --> 00:54:31,910
and said, get your AI shit together.

1130
00:54:32,660 --> 00:54:32,959
Yeah.

1131
00:54:32,959 --> 00:54:33,220
And, and,

1132
00:54:33,260 --> 00:54:38,190
and, and, and, you know, I, while
I love corral, I wish they did

1133
00:54:38,190 --> 00:54:39,570
more development in that area.

1134
00:54:39,570 --> 00:54:40,609
They, they tend, they tend to.

1135
00:54:40,955 --> 00:54:45,085
They tend to not play around as
much as an, you know, as much as

1136
00:54:45,085 --> 00:54:45,795
Adobe does, you know what I mean?

1137
00:54:45,955 --> 00:54:49,715
You know, uh, but, uh, I, I wish they
would integrate something, you know, a

1138
00:54:49,715 --> 00:54:53,265
little bit more futuristic like that,
but I don't foresee that anytime soon.

1139
00:54:53,564 --> 00:54:53,874
Yeah.

1140
00:54:54,215 --> 00:54:57,045
And for the work that you guys do,
especially like on the fabrication

1141
00:54:57,045 --> 00:55:02,645
side, it's like, I wouldn't trust the
AI enough to like, maybe, maybe give

1142
00:55:02,645 --> 00:55:08,214
you a concept to like look at and design
off of, but yeah, like it's still too.

1143
00:55:08,540 --> 00:55:10,100
Too much of an estimate or a guess on

1144
00:55:10,100 --> 00:55:10,510
everything.

1145
00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:14,390
Knowing how long it took CorelDRAW
to come up with a Mac version after

1146
00:55:14,390 --> 00:55:17,739
saying that they would never have
a Mac version, I'm pretty sure

1147
00:55:17,739 --> 00:55:19,649
that that's like 20 years away.

1148
00:55:20,260 --> 00:55:20,540
Sure.

1149
00:55:21,490 --> 00:55:24,699
So, so the one, one last final thing,
and this is one of the reasons,

1150
00:55:24,699 --> 00:55:27,509
Bryant, why, why I reached out
to you from the last automation.

1151
00:55:27,539 --> 00:55:30,209
Um, and, and, and we didn't really talk
about automation, although we talked

1152
00:55:30,210 --> 00:55:32,940
about AI, but I just want to cover this
piece because I think it's a pretty big

1153
00:55:32,950 --> 00:55:34,680
game changer for a lot of organizations.

1154
00:55:35,019 --> 00:55:37,759
And, uh, you know, my company would
probably kill me if I told you this, but.

1155
00:55:38,385 --> 00:55:39,665
Bear with me for just a second.

1156
00:55:39,675 --> 00:55:42,875
So one of the things that you guys
complained about last time, and this

1157
00:55:42,875 --> 00:55:46,575
is specific to interior signs is having
to type all the signage out, right?

1158
00:55:47,445 --> 00:55:47,705
Yeah.

1159
00:55:48,125 --> 00:55:48,945
Manually.

1160
00:55:49,475 --> 00:55:51,355
You don't, you're wasting your time.

1161
00:55:53,265 --> 00:55:56,825
So most of the time you have some sort
of document, an Excel spreadsheet,

1162
00:55:56,825 --> 00:55:59,894
a word doc, something along those
lines that tells you the messaging

1163
00:55:59,955 --> 00:56:03,245
for those particular jobs, not
going to tell you the particular.

1164
00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:08,530
Um, plugin, but there is a plugin for
Corel that allows you to tie an Excel

1165
00:56:08,530 --> 00:56:13,250
spreadsheet to very individual pieces of
your drawing in Corel and have it type

1166
00:56:13,250 --> 00:56:14,630
everything out for you automatically.

1167
00:56:16,840 --> 00:56:19,440
So you don't have to
typeset anything ever again.

1168
00:56:19,930 --> 00:56:21,980
We'll have to look that up and
put it in the show notes, Pete.

1169
00:56:22,330 --> 00:56:22,650
Yeah.

1170
00:56:22,780 --> 00:56:25,370
So we can't get Adam
killed, obviously, but

1171
00:56:26,660 --> 00:56:29,650
so basically you got 1700 signs.

1172
00:56:29,740 --> 00:56:34,270
You can basically make Excel spreadsheets
by individual sign type, assign those

1173
00:56:34,280 --> 00:56:39,220
specific messages to a type field, um, and
corral draw and then just click a button

1174
00:56:39,220 --> 00:56:43,179
and it'll type out everything in the same
font, the same height, the same message.

1175
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:45,830
You can even have a drop down a line
if you want for those sign types that

1176
00:56:45,830 --> 00:56:48,220
require a multi line, a drawing set.

1177
00:56:48,595 --> 00:56:53,465
Um, so that, that to us has basically
saved a three person hiring, um, for our

1178
00:56:53,465 --> 00:56:55,115
design team from an efficiency standpoint.

1179
00:56:55,805 --> 00:56:56,005
Yeah.

1180
00:56:56,005 --> 00:56:56,545
That's really nice.

1181
00:56:56,545 --> 00:56:57,824
I didn't know those tools existed.

1182
00:56:57,845 --> 00:57:03,634
And I used to have, um, when I
would do, uh, booklets and things

1183
00:57:03,635 --> 00:57:04,684
like that in the print shop.

1184
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:10,210
Uh, we had tools like InDesign and there
was a couple of other like specific

1185
00:57:10,220 --> 00:57:15,689
built tools that would do variable data
overall, but I didn't know they were

1186
00:57:15,690 --> 00:57:18,720
never available in illustrator, which
is what I was in 90 percent of the time

1187
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:19,090
anyway.

1188
00:57:19,150 --> 00:57:19,289
Yeah.

1189
00:57:19,289 --> 00:57:22,130
I mean, you're, you're on the right
track, uh, as far as that's concerned.

1190
00:57:22,160 --> 00:57:26,640
Um, there's just, there's a particular
plugin suite, um, that, uh, that, um,

1191
00:57:26,700 --> 00:57:29,030
is, is I believe fairly well known.

1192
00:57:29,090 --> 00:57:31,709
Um, and, uh, there's a particular
tool within that plugin suite

1193
00:57:31,709 --> 00:57:32,730
that allows you to do this.

1194
00:57:32,780 --> 00:57:34,580
Um, and it's a pretty big game changer.

1195
00:57:35,910 --> 00:57:36,330
Sweet.

1196
00:57:38,100 --> 00:57:38,490
Adam.

1197
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:39,660
Wow, man.

1198
00:57:40,260 --> 00:57:41,460
This has been a great episode.

1199
00:57:41,530 --> 00:57:45,450
Um, a good episode for Pete and
I to get back in the saddle.

1200
00:57:46,300 --> 00:57:47,740
We appreciate you coming on.

1201
00:57:47,900 --> 00:57:48,480
Um, yeah.

1202
00:57:48,499 --> 00:57:49,660
What's the future for you guys?

1203
00:57:49,700 --> 00:57:51,230
Like, what's the future for you?

1204
00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:52,440
What's the future for creative

1205
00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:52,900
designs?

1206
00:57:53,500 --> 00:57:55,180
Yeah, I mean, so we're sorry.

1207
00:57:55,289 --> 00:57:55,669
Yeah.

1208
00:57:55,700 --> 00:57:56,000
Yeah.

1209
00:57:56,000 --> 00:57:58,200
So we are, we, we continue to grow.

1210
00:57:58,250 --> 00:58:02,450
Um, you know, we are, uh, we were
tracking to be 28 percent ahead of

1211
00:58:02,450 --> 00:58:04,180
where we were this time last year.

1212
00:58:04,385 --> 00:58:08,175
We are, we are, we are growing
our, our national account sides of

1213
00:58:08,235 --> 00:58:09,685
the side of the business as well.

1214
00:58:09,805 --> 00:58:14,705
And, uh, uh, you know, we continue to, uh,
look to expand outside, you know, we, we

1215
00:58:14,705 --> 00:58:18,544
do business all over the United States,
but we continue to, we want to continue to

1216
00:58:18,544 --> 00:58:23,025
expand from a shop standpoint outside of,
uh, you know, all over the United States.

1217
00:58:23,025 --> 00:58:24,305
And that's kind of where
we're headed right now.

1218
00:58:24,395 --> 00:58:27,795
Um, as far as design is concerned,
probably the next steps are, are,

1219
00:58:27,795 --> 00:58:29,285
are that more design engineer.

1220
00:58:29,550 --> 00:58:32,440
Uh, position that I described earlier in
the business, you know, where somebody

1221
00:58:32,440 --> 00:58:35,960
that is doing more detail work, um,
right now, kind of it's spread across

1222
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:39,280
the rest of the whole entire design
team, uh, but having really a department

1223
00:58:39,280 --> 00:58:44,020
that's dedicated to doing, you know,
fabrication level detail, um, and details.

1224
00:58:44,170 --> 00:58:47,099
Uh, so those people that are on my,
uh, regular design team that are

1225
00:58:47,099 --> 00:58:49,790
more creative, don't have to worry
about those types of things anymore.

1226
00:58:49,970 --> 00:58:53,220
And, and bit more utilizing
things like AutoCAD and Solid

1227
00:58:53,220 --> 00:58:54,280
Works in our shop day to day.

1228
00:58:55,485 --> 00:58:55,815
Nice.

1229
00:58:56,365 --> 00:58:56,535
Yep.

1230
00:58:56,785 --> 00:58:56,995
Love

1231
00:58:56,995 --> 00:58:57,275
that.

1232
00:58:58,075 --> 00:59:03,505
Pete, any closing questions,
arguments, comments?

1233
00:59:04,905 --> 00:59:07,225
You kind of took the
wind from my sails there.

1234
00:59:07,225 --> 00:59:11,095
This is a great, this was a great episode
to jump right back on the saddle here.

1235
00:59:11,145 --> 00:59:17,845
Adam, uh, I'm, um, I'm submitting
my resume to your shop here today.

1236
00:59:18,895 --> 00:59:19,545
Okay.

1237
00:59:19,595 --> 00:59:22,445
I look what you guys got going on.

1238
00:59:22,445 --> 00:59:22,875
I love that.

1239
00:59:22,875 --> 00:59:23,259
You're.

1240
00:59:23,410 --> 00:59:27,280
You're involved with some really
interesting tools, smart sheets.

1241
00:59:27,350 --> 00:59:28,350
I'm familiar with it.

1242
00:59:28,350 --> 00:59:33,280
I think it's a great tool, a collaboration
tool, team communication tool.

1243
00:59:33,990 --> 00:59:34,940
Love, love that.

1244
00:59:34,940 --> 00:59:39,560
You have some automated in your alerts,
notifications and built in your system.

1245
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:41,884
I wish more and more people would.

1246
00:59:41,955 --> 00:59:45,635
Take a page out of that book, but
thank you again for jumping on here

1247
00:59:45,635 --> 00:59:49,195
and giving our audience a little bit
of a sneak peek into what their shops

1248
00:59:49,235 --> 00:59:53,055
could eventually be by just learning
a little bit about what you have got

1249
00:59:53,055 --> 00:59:54,515
going on there at creative design.

1250
00:59:54,515 --> 00:59:55,335
So just

1251
00:59:55,335 --> 00:59:56,835
want to say, I appreciate
you guys having me on.

1252
00:59:57,025 --> 00:59:57,885
Yeah, absolutely.

1253
00:59:58,240 --> 00:59:58,660
Excellent.

1254
01:00:00,580 --> 01:00:00,950
All right.

1255
01:00:01,140 --> 01:00:01,460
That's a wrap.

1256
01:00:01,490 --> 01:00:01,870
All right.

1257
01:00:02,200 --> 01:00:02,400
All right.

1258
01:00:02,490 --> 01:00:02,850
Thanks, guys.

1259
01:00:03,140 --> 01:00:03,310
All right.

1260
01:00:03,310 --> 01:00:03,819
See ya.

1261
01:00:03,900 --> 01:00:04,690
That's the episode.

1262
01:00:04,710 --> 01:00:05,730
I hope you enjoyed it.

1263
01:00:05,920 --> 01:00:10,460
I'd like to give one final shout out
to our sponsor, GCI Digital Printing,

1264
01:00:10,660 --> 01:00:12,680
grand format printer to the trade.

1265
01:00:13,150 --> 01:00:15,600
GCI is not your average print shop.

1266
01:00:15,990 --> 01:00:19,430
They pride themselves on
providing you a fast, stress

1267
01:00:19,430 --> 01:00:21,690
free experience when outsourcing.

1268
01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:25,280
Their no excuses mindset
means no matter the job.

1269
01:00:25,565 --> 01:00:27,405
They'll have it done every time.

1270
01:00:27,875 --> 01:00:31,815
No other vendor will go to the
lengths that GCI does to ensure

1271
01:00:31,815 --> 01:00:33,655
you're a satisfied customer.

1272
01:00:34,205 --> 01:00:37,865
To hear more about their approach
to business, hop back into the

1273
01:00:37,865 --> 01:00:42,574
archives to episode 9, where the
guys and I interview owner TJ Biedakt

1274
01:00:42,575 --> 01:00:44,775
about top tier customer experience.

1275
01:00:45,255 --> 01:00:49,005
If you're looking for a high
quality trade printer for banners,

1276
01:00:49,045 --> 01:00:54,715
mesh, and more, TJ and his crew
were small, GCI does them all.

1277
01:00:55,205 --> 01:00:58,155
Check them out at PrintGCI.

1278
01:00:58,195 --> 01:00:58,485
com.

1279
01:00:59,575 --> 01:00:59,735
If

1280
01:00:59,735 --> 01:01:04,135
you liked this episode, make sure you hit
subscribe to get all the latest episodes.

1281
01:01:04,195 --> 01:01:07,245
And check out our website, BetterSignShop.

1282
01:01:07,275 --> 01:01:07,745
com.

1283
01:01:08,425 --> 01:01:11,735
Get free resources and helpful
tools on growing your shop.

1284
01:01:12,075 --> 01:01:13,095
Thanks for listening.