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NWA Founders is a voice for Founders, Owners, and Builders driving growth in Northwest Arkansas, and is hosted by Cameron Clark and Nick Beyer.
'NWA Founders' is a voice for Founders, Owners, and Builders driving growth in Northwest Arkansas, and is hosted by Cameron Clark and Nick Beyer.
To recommend a guest or ask questions, reach out at nwafounders@gmail.com and follow us on YouTube and LinkedIn for video content.
Matt Mawby: [00:00:00] Every day we would see in the sales organization how many calls we pulled, who we serviced, and what our response time was. I would say to a client, if indeed you did business with us, if indeed we fail you on four hours, you're not gonna have to tell us. We're gonna tell you. And it did happen guys, but I asked the client in the very beginning, what do you want to have happen?
You wanna cancel the contract? Tell me what you want and we'll do it. We'd get in our car, we'd drive to our decision maker, we'd sit in front of 'em and say, it happened yesterday. I'm back to the table asking you, what do you want us to do? And it's no big deal. Things are good. We love you guys, but we admitted it.
There's a word that's inside Wired that we utilize as our standards and that's integrity. We wanna sleep at night. If it's not what we promised, we'll make it right. And we have
Cameron Clark: Good morning guys. Morning got the Mawby family, the trio here. The most that I've ever been on A NWA Founders podcast. Yeah. Thanks for letting us come to your office here in Pinnacle. You know, our purpose is to [00:01:00] encourage entrepreneurs here in northwest Arkansas. I think people have got a lot to learn from your story.
So we've got Matt, Matthew, and Mitchell. Why don't you give us kinda a 32nd overview before we dive in. What is PBS and what do y'all do?
Matt Mawby: Well, what we do today in comparison to what we did in the past, um, is a lot different. When I got in the business in 1980. Six. Uh, we were a copier company and I mean, everything revolved around copiers in somebody's office.
We've always had a tangible device that made the relationship possible. And early on the tangible device was that copy machine. But as we all know, in northwest Arkansas, we were good old boys back in that day. And if you knew somebody and, and, and you did good things, the word spread. And, uh, we tried to stay very committed to a promise, uh, with that tangible device.
And then the next thing you know, relationships started to grow and trust started to grow within the community. And, you know, we [00:02:00] had a lot of competition and, and we talked about it earlier that the, uh, the aspect of what, what did our competitors say? Um, and when you're new in the business, and we, we competed with about five players at the time, you know, we were gonna go broke.
We, we, we were gonna be one of those guys. It was a flash in the pan and, and, and be gone tomorrow. And they told that story to a lot of northwest Arkansas. And, and we just, just kept plugging away and plugging away and plugging away. And, and, and amazingly enough, what we found was there's, there was a lot of aspects that, that maybe there were existing providers that were taking advantage of the relationship.
So we, we established a lot of relationships before we even sold a piece of paper. Um. Staying true to follow up and, and, and just we're gonna be here and, and so on and so forth. And as it grew, um, the, the industry evolved. It became more to a point so that now rather than just plugging into the wall with power, we plugged into the wall with a [00:03:00] network and it became a printer.
And that evolution started to happen. And, and quite frankly, if indeed I would've known that that's where the industry was going, it had intimidated me to death. Um, 'cause, you know, the, the, the background doesn't show high education with, with, with my background, but commitment to customers was, was something that we, we stayed true to.
So that evolution kind of started to happen. And then, um, that moves us into probably, oh gosh, 15, 20 years ago. And we, we, we were blowing and going and things were good and, and, and just vertical. Uh, and you can imagine the e the evolution that happened when Covid hit. You guys were talking about that earlier.
Um, here we are doing all of that and, and things are great and, and, um, I literally remember the [00:04:00] day that they said everything was gonna shut down. And I evaluated, man, I gotta, I gotta go in and see how much money we got in the bank. I need to identify what our sustainability is. I don't, I'm not gonna lay anybody off.
Everybody's gonna have a job until the very end. And we stayed committed to that. Um, we didn't, we didn't terminate a soul. Um, and, you know, industry analyst definitely emphasized that, you know, there's, there's a pi piece of this business that's never gonna come back because people are working from home.
And those prints on paper inside that office are just, they had to figure out different ways to do it. And these guys can tell you now that, that, that was a myth. It's back, um, it's booming. Um, but so is our business. And the, and the evolution now says, um, in these guys' areas, it's substantially more than a copier business.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: So that story, um, they can definitely tell better than I can, um, in, in [00:05:00] regards to remembering that, that we use a tangible device to provide a vehicle. But really what we identify with is, is just listen to the customer. Every situation's different and we wanna mold a program that best suits. Our client.
Cameron Clark: Well maybe talk about from the, the beginning, did you grow up here? Where did you grow up? I grew
Matt Mawby: up in Elkins. Okay. Outside of Fayetteville. Moved there from Palm Springs, California when I was 10. So it was a little bit of a culture shock. So long hair and, um, flip flops wasn't something that went over real well in Elkins, so, or skateboards nowhere to ride 'em.
But I have two brothers and we moved to Elkins from Palm Springs. And, uh, you know, I, I think the growing up, and I, I would tell you today that I would call it a boot camp that we grew up on a hundred acres and we had cattle and we
mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: And we did hay and all of the above. But the thing that it definitely taught us was, is that, you [00:06:00] know, you don't have any options.
You do have to get up and go to work every day at a very young age. So in growing up in Elkins, um, graduated in 83 thought, um, I wanted to try college, so I tried it and, um, didn't, didn't care for it too much. Yep. So, uh, did a semester here at
Cameron Clark: University of Arkansas. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Matt Mawby: Mm-hmm. Evolved out of, uh, trying that and, um, cut into classified advertising sales.
Wow. And, um, did that for about nine months, evolved into, uh, selling long distance. Service for a local company. Um, and then that evolved into an application, uh, with Marvin Gray in 1986. The business was literally less than two months old when I interviewed with him. And, uh, amazingly enough, he was a good enough sales guy that I took a substantial pay cut [00:07:00] to make the change.
And that's when Real Bootcamp started. Mm-hmm. I mean, this guy was a monomaniac. And, uh, but the impressive part that I had in regards to that part of my life was, is that I was so amazed that a 40-year-old guy could work this hard. And he used a word and it was everywhere. He used the word momentum. And ma'am, when we would close a deal, there was no celebration.
It was onto the next one. Onto the next one, onto the next one. And, uh, we were, we were on a mission.
Yeah.
Matt Mawby: And the, the market was, the, the market was, was in pretty good shape for us to do what we
Cameron Clark: did. And just so everyone knows listening, that is what professional Businesses Systems is today. Same company?
Matt Mawby: Same company. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yep. It evolved. We bought a hundred percent of the shares, um, actually march the seventh, 2011. So today's the anniversary, um, of that. So, uh, [00:08:00] yeah. It's been good. It's been really good.
Cameron Clark: So at the time the, uh, when you join, when you joined up with him there, was it just, just you two?
Matt Mawby: It was, um, it was himself, um, kind of a friend of the family that was another, um, you know, kind of assisted with deliveries and stuff like that. Um, his wife and two technicians and one receptionist. And the crazy part is, you know, that we, we, we started this scenario of saying guaranteed four hour response time.
And when we would make the call, we have two service technicians. Our very first customer was Washington Regional, by the way, they're still our customer today. Wow. Um, we, we, we literally placed seven units at the time, and when I started, part of my responsibility on a daily basis was to see every one of those seven machines and make sure that end user was still in love with the promises that we made.
And of course, also asked for [00:09:00] referrals and everything else. Um, but we had two service technicians and seven machines in the field. We guarantee four hour response. These guys didn't have anything to do. Um, so, and we used ratios. There was, there were industry benchmarks and ratios and so on and so forth, but every ratio that would say, you know, you get so many machines in the field, you add a tech and, and so on and so forth.
When we would get, um, 70, 75% of what benchmark said we'd add tech because we wanted to continue to underpromise and overdeliver.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: Um, and the impression I would gamble to say still today is how in the world do you guys do it? I mean, you're sitting in the parking lot because we call you and you're here and we can, we, we continue to be a little bit heavy from a personnel standpoint that drives, uh, a satisfaction level that's hard to compete with.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: It's very hard to compete with because if indeed you're just, you're managing off spreadsheets and financial statements and so on and so forth, it, uh, it [00:10:00] doesn't always make sense to be overstaffed. Mm-hmm. But the commitment level and, and, and, and the impression that you can make with clientele is obviously significant.
Cameron Clark: Significant.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Nick Beyer: So it brings us back to those early days, Marvin Gray. Yeah. Um, landing your first client, I mean, do you remember what, what that was like? I mean, I, I imagine back then too, Washington Regional still, that that'd still be a big client to land, um, as your first client. So what, what were, were those emotions like?
Matt Mawby: So in the beginning, oh gosh, this is, this is dinosaur days, but, um, you know, we had three models. You had this, you had this 30 page per minute box, and then you had a little 12 page per minute. We called 'em baloney, slicers 'cause the top moved back and forth. Um, and then you had a midsize machine that was, um, I think 15 pages a minute.
And, you know, being, I, I, I'll, I won't forget it, the first day on the, on the street, he sent me to Sunset in Springdale. [00:11:00] Mm-hmm. And said, just calling every business up and down that street, you should be busy all day. And I came back at the end of the day and I said, Marv, everybody's got one of these. I mean, who do we sell 'em to?
And he's like, you don't sell 'em. You very limited times. You go in and sell 'em brand new, you replace what they have and the technology that we have is better than what they have. Okay. So you'd make calls and you'd make calls and, and, and you never walked in and said, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you called.
We're in the market for a machine. It didn't happen. Um, so you had to, you know, what do you like and establish a relationship and, and, and all the above and first landed, um, transaction. I can't remember, uh, but. The, the, the emphasis of what I had to learn as a young sales guy, you know, the little bologna slice, your 12 pages a minute machine was like $1,100 easy sale, right?
Well, this 30 page per minute machine was, well, you could [00:12:00] build it to a point. So there'd be seven to $10,000. Well, I would walk in and they'd have these big boxes and I would say, well, you need just a 12 page room machine. I mean, $900, we can make a deal. Mm-hmm. And but it wasn't, it, it wasn't the capacity machine to do what they needed to do.
So you learn and, and, and, and so on and so forth. But, uh, what I remember about the early days, we made lots of calls and lots of discipline in regards to staying committed to that plan. I mean, you wore suit and tie back in that day, and in, in, in 90 degree, 90% humidity days, you wore a suit and tie. And I, I'd like to, I'd like to feel like that we, in, in that era, we kind of set the standard and numerous competitors.
I mean, you became friends with theirs and so on and so forth. They were, they were a little disappointed that, that, that we brought up that standard and then those guys had to start wearing a tie and coat and so on and so forth. So, um, we had a corporate [00:13:00] organization, um, in our marketplace called Modern Business Systems at the time it was founded in, in, uh, Missouri.
And those guys were the, those guys were the other suits.
Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: So, uh, but they weren't local. And
Cameron Clark: was the office in Rogers from the inception,
Matt Mawby: so everybody knows where Evelyn Hills is, right? In Fayetteville? Mm-hmm. Yep. We rented 1500 square feet there. Wow. And it was a wide open retail space that in the very beginning, my father-in-law, which is Marvin Gray.
Okay. Um, that's an entirely different story. Story, but he bought a hundred of the big machines and then a hundred small machines. So we used those copiers to create offices. We literally established where we just break it up and we just stacked 'em to the ceiling. And you went through a little opening that was all copiers in the side.
And Marvin, I remember him saying that we would get phone calls after we do a proposal and, and, and somebody would call and make an offer and he'd look at [00:14:00] all these copiers and go, you know what, I'll take it 'cause it's better that I go ahead and get rid of some of these. And what we thought, you know, inventory was gonna be, um, maybe last us, the first six months we were, we were ready for another purchase in about 90 days.
Wow.
Matt Mawby: We were, we were, we were slinging 'em that fast. Um, you know, and the evolution of, of what transpired. There was a lot of, uh, there was a, there was another organization that, that my father-in-law did work for, that he worked in northwest Arkansas territory for eight years prior to opening his own Minolta.
At the time, it wasn't Konica Minolta at that time, but Minolta called him, offered him his franchise, and he said, yes, mortgage, the farm took the risk. Did you know the American Dream aspect? And, um, off we went. He took a, he took a chance. Mm-hmm. And I, I, I, I really [00:15:00] believe that's why he worked the way that he worked.
Mm. He wasn't gonna fail. And some of those, um, disciplines with accenting what I grew up with was a perfect mix. Hmm. Um, a lot of respect. Uh, a lot of, a lot of this doesn't make sense. So I, I have to admit though, that there was a time that he pushed too hard and I resigned. And, uh, so I was gone for a stretch of about mm, three or four months.
And that's where the dynamic of, of, uh, going back to, I moved to California. I had parents that lived in California and I was gonna go back to college, play baseball, everything else. I was 24, 21 years old. And, uh, my mom was gonna underwrite that idea. I. She was ecstatic. Um, but I had one last dream to to, to make one farewell to Northwest Arkansas.
[00:16:00] And came to northwest Arkansas over the Christmas holidays. And people might say that it was the mistake of my life, but I asked Marvin to go to go to lunch. 'cause the way we, the way I departed probably wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Um, so we went to lunch and, uh, I made the decision that this is where I need to be.
Mm-hmm. I was in California and everywhere I went, I was looking at these copiers and all these and what am I doing? And, uh, it was, I'd call it the bug is what they said. And it just, I came back and the rest is history.
Cameron Clark: And were you dating his daughter at the time? While, while all this was going on, I knew
it
Matthew Mawby: had to come in at some point.
Matt Mawby: Her, uh, her mom, Marsha, um, super lady. And she asked me if I would take her to the prom and I'm [00:17:00] like, uh, no at all. Again, 21 and I'm gonna high school prom. Probably not real high on my list. Right. But I said, you know, she doesn't find a date and she doesn't wanna do anything. I mean, we can go to dinner. So she didn't go to the prom and we went to dinner and, and that was the first one of the aspects that I, I shared with Marvin is, is that I'm gonna come back to work.
And these things we said to each other, I said it first and then he, he committed to it. I said, I'm gonna be real serious. I'm gonna, I'm gonna listen to what you teach me. I'm gonna, I'm gonna execute your plan and we'll see how we do. But here's the deal we're gonna make. I'm not gonna quit and you can't fire me and there's gonna be days, both of us wanna do it and we can't do it.
And sure enough, there were, there were days that, that had that, but what happened with Mauritian, that dynamic is, is that I said, I'm gonna be serious. Um, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't wanna work, I don't wanna, I don't want a [00:18:00] relationship. Well, we got married March the fourth, 1989, and when I came back it was 1988.
So I kind of modified the plan, but wow. It's been fantastic. That's awesome.
Cameron Clark: And when you say you caught the bug, what what'd you like about the industry?
Matt Mawby: You know, imagine, of course, 21 years old and I would literally put 25 business cards in my pocket and wouldn't cheat. You couldn't go in the office. If I met you two guys, I couldn't give away two cards and call it if, if I met you guys, I'd call that one call.
Mm.
Matt Mawby: Um, and every day I was committed to distributing 25 cards, 25 calls, 25 contacts. Mm. And then make good notes and, and, and so on and so forth. And the bug was, is that amazingly enough when you would follow up and you'd use things to have you even seen your current provider and, and those type of things.
And, and I'm not gonna say it was easy, it was hard. It's raw, raw, [00:19:00] raw selling. I'm making 25 calls a day. And, um, but Northwest Arkansas, you know, I, I, I wouldn't say that everybody, you know, just wanted to give you a hug when you, when you called on 'em, you were a copier salesman. I mean, and, and, and our de our, our description of our industry was, is that you're this much ahead of a used car salesman.
'cause there was a lot of 'em out there.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: And, and, but there was, there wasn't a lot of consistency that get in and get out, get in, get out. Um, and then, you know, I was competing with guys that were Marvin's age or older.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: And the bug for me was, I told Marvin in the original interview. That my favorite sport was baseball.
And the, the career that I wanted to pursue was something that I could feel like when I went to work every day was I was getting to take the field and look at it, like, hit me the ball. I wanna make the play. And man, [00:20:00] when, when you, when you, when you're in something that, that feels like, um, you're making efforts that your competition's not just, it, it, it, it felt pretty stinking good.
Um, and step up to the plate. Yeah. And we did and we swung it.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Yeah. We were not, um, loved by all of our competitors at all because how do we build a business? We took their customers. That's what we did. And we did it pretty strong. Uh, we're we're, it still happens. Um, so it, the bug man, I, I, I think it was just the people, the reception of, of, of if indeed we committed to the promise, um, and.
We did, man, we, we did not. [00:21:00] We, we, we had a scenario and if indeed we, we would guaranteed for our response time, every day we would see in the sales organization how many calls we pulled, who we, who we serviced, and what our response time was. And, and, and the truth of the matter is, I would say to a client, if indeed you did business with us, if indeed we fail you on four hours, you're not gonna have to tell us.
We're gonna tell you. And it did happen, guys. Wow. But I asked the client in the very beginning, if indeed it does happen, what do you want to have happen? You wanna cancel the contract? You wanna, you want to do anything in regards to that, that, that's extraordinary. Tell me what you want and we'll do it.
But surprisingly enough, when we would get those reports, and, and, and trust me, it might have happened in the worst year, four times a year, but we'd get in our car, we'd drive to our decision maker, we'd sit in front of 'em and say, it happened yesterday.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: And I'm back to the table asking you, what us, what do you want us to do?
Man, it's no big deal. And relax, things are good. We love you [00:22:00] guys, but we admitted it.
Wow.
Matt Mawby: And, um, you know, you're gonna, you, you would see all around this office, but there's, there's, there's wired, but there's a word that's inside wired that we utilize as our standards, and that's integrity and sleep at.
We're not out here telling you about a used car that we have no idea where it came from, who drove it, who crashed it, anything else. If it's not what we promised, we'll make it right. And we have, so
Cameron Clark: yeah, we're gonna see at the grocery store the next day. Yeah. We,
Matt Mawby: you, you say that and, and one of the things that we used to strive to clients is, is that Walmart, of course in Walmart country, you know, we go to Walmart and we don't wanna see you on the aisle and have to duck down the other aisle because that's what we did.
Yeah. And I think if we look at northwest Arkansas, there's a lot of us, um, that have been around a while. That's the way we grew our business. Mm-hmm. [00:23:00] So
Nick Beyer: it's special, it's intangible. Um, so going back to those early days, what, what was the service? What were you selling? I think you talked about a few different models, baloney, slicer.
What is a copier for someone who, I mean right. We, a lot of people know what a printer is, but like back in those days, what, and then kind of talk about when the shift went from to what, you know, when we walk in an office today, what, what we know, how
Matt Mawby: long, how long has Mark been here? 1998. 1998. So the evolution in 1998, as I said, you plugged the copier into the wall for power.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: And at that time, you needed originals to put 'em on the glass to make duplicates of those. Yep. Okay. And, and you guys don't go way back that far, but you know, that used to be this way. Mm-hmm. Um, and this copier. Was was magic man. I mean, you'd, you'd give it a stack of 50 originals in the, in the, in the document feed and ask it for 20 sets and push sort, and you'd come back in 10 [00:24:00] minutes and it's all done stapled in the corner and oh my gosh.
It's an efficiency tool that goes into the office that changes people's lives, right? Mm-hmm. That's, that's the industry I got into. Mm-hmm. Because the, in the ones that we replaced didn't have a lot of those options. So it was, it was replicating an original, so is what it did. But in 1998, um, digital technology became, so then the originals would be scanned, stored mm-hmm.
In a digital memory, and then you tell it what you wanted to do. Hmm. Now the evolution started to happen to a point so that now as the workplace became networked. We could scan that document, now we can scan it to your workstation. Right now we can do anything that we want. And guess what happened to the industry?
Everybody in our industry in, in, in those days, were going, where's our print volume gonna go? Um, it continued to soar. It was, it overstated, it, it continued to do what it's supposed to do because [00:25:00] I don't know if it, you guys have never done it, but when email became a tool that we used in business, you know, old guys like myself, I would never rely if I read it on the screen, it'd print, I'd print it
mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: And I'd make my notes on it and I'd have a call and, you know, do all the things that I needed to do with this. That it seems sound it still dinosaurs
Nick Beyer: today. I do too.
Matt Mawby: And, and, um, when it became digital, it just enhanced the need for better service. Mm. Which was another shot in the arm for us to say, man, they, they gotta rely.
And we would make calls and, and a lot of the things that we would say were What do you figure that the inside your office, what are the, what are the most important tools that you use on a daily basis? Well, back in the day, guys, it was a telephone. Mm-hmm. And, and, and you'd put 'em on hold with a little red button and then you'd yell across the hall and tell 'em that Joe's on the line and, and, and, and Susie pick it up and talk to him.
Right. That was the phone. It didn't have cell phone. So, okay. What happens to your business when that goes down? [00:26:00] We're out. Well, the next tool that they used inside their office that was just as strong of a contender being a primary piece of equipment. It was a copier. Well, when it went down and, and think about Washington Regional with those, those copiers, if it's down and there's a patient in the emergency room, we had two in the emergency room, by the way, if that copier went down, they couldn't do anything.
Yeah.
Matt Mawby: Copier, driver's license, copier, insurance card, all of those key aspects that run that business.
Yeah.
Matt Mawby: In everybody's business.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Well, if they're down, they're out. Mm-hmm. And then you go into a lot of business to business calls and they didn't have multiple machines. So imagine that device being number two behind the telephone and you wait two or three days for service.
Yeah. Yikes. Yeah. Right. So then the solution became, well you need two. Why do you need two when you get GU guaranteed four response time. And for years, I dunno what it is today, but for years our average response time is less than an hour [00:27:00] and a half. Yeah. And we love to think that we wanna spoil our customer and, and, and four hours sounds great.
They love the idea. But then when you come in and under promise and over deliver and you give 'em an average, we do quarterly reviews with a client. In that quarterly review, we shared volume information because they told us what they thought they ran.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: We showed 'em what they actually ran. We showed 'em every service call that we placed on the machine during that 90 day period.
We showed 'em exactly every call, how long it took us to get here, and admitted that if indeed we were failing. But surprisingly enough, it exceeded what we promised.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: They loved it.
Cameron Clark: I loved it. So were you and Marvin both very metric driven from the beginning? I mean, was that part of, part of the business?
Hey, we're, we're, we're going to track these things. We're gonna show these to our customers, we're going to Marvin
Matt Mawby: In Marvin's era, we didn't do it. Okay. Okay. Marvin's era, we didn't do it. We, we, we literally saw the calls, the service calls, but we didn't take that element of service back to the [00:28:00] client. And you can imagine guys, I mean, we were, we were adding customers, um, a lot by the month.
And in order to do something like that, uh, I can see Marvin assessing. I mean, we, we probably did that once a year, but Marvin would assess that, that time that we would do on a quarterly basis. Granted, it's great for the relationship, but it's taken us away from selling time. Mm-hmm. There's so much potential.
We gotta get new clients. Gotta get new clients.
Cameron Clark: And we did. And were you focused on driving to Tulsa or Little Rock or, I mean, so was this just, I mean, I are Northwest Arkansas.
Matt Mawby: 1986 when we opened, um, Marvin actually had a branch in Springfield, Missouri, and Joplin, Missouri. And, um, Joplin closed relatively soon.
He had partners. Um, but I joined when we still had Springfield and, and, and the work ethic that we had at this location. I.[00:29:00]
Even our, our own team, we, we smoked them and, uh, not that they weren't good people, and I love 'em all to death still today. It was, it, it just, you know, and Marvin did not accept anything less than what we were doing. And were those guys in their own mind driving success? I think they thought that way. And, and so when they broke off away from us, they existed for a long time.
But, um, I don't think that they had the same desire. You know, we always talk about it. I how in the world will you ever know that you get big if indeed all you focus on is giving good service? Yeah. And, and, and, and if indeed all we're chasing is, is a higher number, higher number, higher number, higher number, um, you'll be really surprised if indeed you just wanna continue to focus on good service.
It happens. Mm-hmm. And it's surprisingly, it, it, it just continues to happen. [00:30:00] The evolution. I'd love to be able to say we've never lost a customer. Um, but, you know, uh, what do we typically lose for is a competitor comes in and we, and, and, and they provide a story that says we are just as good as they are except cheaper
and have never gone in alignment with what we believe. Cheap is an aspect that you want to chase versus those two marrying together and making for a good relationship and value. Um, unfortunately you might have to leave, but amazingly enough, some of the ones that have left have come back.
Yeah.
Matt Mawby: Uh, and we don't, that's not a cocky scenario.
We get it. We appreciate it. Um, we keep calling on 'em. We keep asking how those other guys are doing, and when the opportunity comes up again, we, we, we get another shot. Mm-hmm. That's
Nick Beyer: awesome.
Yeah.
Nick Beyer: So the, the service back [00:31:00] then, would you sell the actual copier, like y'all would sell it or they would go buy it from somewhere else?
They'd buy it from you and then it's a recurring service that, you know, is we, we agree on X amount per month and we're gonna make sure that anytime there's a problem, we're here to fix it. Is that kind of the model of the business early on?
Matt Mawby: Great question. Um, everybody sold them and then everybody sold a service contract.
And of course when we say sell them, there is finance financing alternatives inside the industry that, that you would use to lease that box to those, to those clients. Well then they had a relationship. It's kinda like buying a car. I used to say it all the time. Remember Don Nelms?
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, Don would sell the car and then Don would use GMAC to finance that car.
Don got his money, I'm done. And GMAC would finance it with a client. Well, what we thought [00:32:00] was, what would you say if indeed we said, we'll help you with the finance and we'll also attach it to satisfaction. So if indeed you want to get our attention in that monthly lease, if we're not making you happy, just don't pay us.
So we became internally finance company. So when we would bring the, the, the, the solution per se, and a proposal would come in and say, this is what the copier is outright purchase. If you wanna write us a check, this is what it is to lease it. That's another relationship. Then here's what our services over here.
So now you've got three options in how you wanna partner with us. Mm-hmm.
And
Matt Mawby: we said X, all three of those out, let's just make one option and let's let you drive. And when you drive, we included that encompassed all in one payment and on those quarterly reviews and so on and so forth, the client could have peaks and valleys and we could make modifications.
If indeed you bought and you bought two smaller, you bought too big and you wanted to modify where you got to the end. Well imagine, imagine going to [00:33:00] GMC and trying to get a payoff. Right. And you don't, you, you didn't have to do that. Yeah. Yeah. We would probably make the call and make recommendations. You are not using what you said you were gonna use.
Let's modify this agreement and or you're using it way too hard. Let's add another unit, so on and so forth. Better serve you. We got to know 'em. And we got to know their workplace.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: I mean, we, we'd walk into offices like ourselves and, and if offices are all throughout and you got one box and there's somebody walking, you know, 50 feet to get a print, we better modify this.
We can give you better service. We can figure out
Nick Beyer: how, how to make this work. We did it all the time. Yeah. So it's clear from the, from the inception, customer satisfaction was, was was the biggest differentiator, was that a new differentiator when you started to carry the cost of capital for buying the equipment?
Was that a, was that a new differentiator or, or were other people doing that in the market at the time?
Matt Mawby: So I know you guys [00:34:00] are all confident and, and understand commercial real estate and there's a lot of similarities. We buy a building and we're gonna rent to our tenants. Right. Well, we need our tenants rent in order to make our deal work.
So as we internally financed, you're exactly right. We, we, we had an, a need for an extended amount of capital. 'cause as we were growing the amount of, you know, I mean, there'd be months, we'd sell a half a million dollars worth of gear and we had to finance it.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: But the risk in financing, if indeed you weren't providing good customer service and we gave them the ability to cancel holy cow.
Mm-hmm. It could get risky.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Um, so in the beginning we would borrow and, and, and, and the typical scenario would be is that. In our industry, the average contract, uh, length is 60 months. We would go to the client, get that arrangement made, and then we [00:35:00] would borrow our money based on cost and finance it for 36.
And we wouldn't, we wouldn't have much, we wouldn't have much margin after we paid them and paid our tech and paid for supplies. But when you got to the 37th month and you repetitively did this as you grew your business, and those got to the 37th month and they were still satisfied, no more equipment payment, you got to start banking that residual.
And then after probably the first 10 years we were, we were, we were operating debt free.
Cameron Clark: Wow.
Matt Mawby: And now we own a leasing portfolio and a leasing company that here sits the standard in the industry that you've got product and service and supplies that are three devices that you can, you can generate profit with.
Well, you got this other one now inside ours, this leasing company that also says how strong our commitment is.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: We, we, we want you to trust us and not only do we want you to trust us, we're gonna give you a [00:36:00] piece of ammunition that maybe doesn't exist everywhere. And we
Nick Beyer: did
Matt Mawby: it.
Nick Beyer: Hmm. So is that new, was that novel back then?
Matt Mawby: Um. Unfortunately, the same organization that my father-in-law worked for, um, that was, that was an organization called dos, office Solutions Office Systems. And back in that era, you could take your copier, your equipment, your service, your supplies, and bundle it. So now let's say we, we would've sold that hardware for an example of, of $250 a month.
And then the other bundle was 250, but you had to kind of do that on the come, right?
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Well, back in that time, you could take that contract and then sell it to a leasing company. The total contract, yeah. Before you ever pulled one service call or delivered one bottle of toner.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Okay. And it got really top heavy.
Well, that [00:37:00] company went down and then it said to everybody how important internal leasing was. Because imagine, and these guys were pretty good size. Imagine being able to do that. And I, I remember the numbers back in that day, but this guy walked out, you know, on, on months where they'd have a good month and they'd sell the whole contract group together.
And a guy that's probably selling a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of copiers a month, he'd walk away with seven. It got very dangerous. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Obviously. Well, they went broke. Yeah. And then they got sued and then some, some of them I think, um, might've been worse.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So did y'all have to, I mean, did y'all have to raise capital or where did the capital come from?
In the beginning? You talked about all the machines y'all had back, uh, in, in the Fayetteville [00:38:00] office. Was that just operating capital? Y'all were rolling into the business or?
Matt Mawby: We, um, we established a relationship, of course in the beginning. I mean, we, we, we just had debt.
Yeah.
Matt Mawby: Um, when we would do that transaction, we take our contract into the bank and that same $500 a month, we would show 'em the equipment portion and then we would show 'em, you know, what we needed because we only borrowed the cost.
Mm-hmm. We didn't borrow the margin. Um, and they'd loan us against that contract, and that contract became our leverage. And then they would give that contract back has paid off at the end of 36 months. And then of course we dreamed about, you know, getting to that 37th month every time. And then, you know, imagine the month when you did that half a million dollars and you got to 37 months.
Cameron Clark: Yeah.
Matt Mawby: And the sigh of relief, um, over and over and over again every month that we did that. Yeah. So, and you know, when you started to get, [00:39:00] um. Marvin retired March the first, 1996. And we had a very successful business at that time. And, um, all of the, all of the dreams that, that, that Marvin had, I think for the most part, he checked all the boxes in regards to owning a business because, um, he was able to, he wasn't 50 yet, he bought a motor home with his wife and they started doing what they did.
And, um, but when, when I, when I came to the table, I saw a tremendous amount of potential in northwest Arkansas that we needed to leverage again. And we were walking away and we were selling to our third party leasing partners. And I just, I didn't think that that was what we needed to do. I think that North, I thought that Northwest Arkansas was still ripe to, uh, to, to enjoy the benefits of our original commitments.
And, um, for about the first 18 [00:40:00] months, he said no to any mortgage. And I mean, I, I did everything. I'd go down and get us pre-approved and take the documents and, and at that particular time, I didn't, I, we didn't, we didn't even own 50% of the company then. So he, he still made all those decisions.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: Um. So finally after about 12 months, I made a presentation of all the sales that we'd done, that we'd done third party, and showed him what the amount of revenue would've been, if indeed we would've internally financed it.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: And all of the benefits of it. And it took six months after that presentation for him to say finally, you know, we, we, we got a million dollar line of credit. Mm-hmm. And, uh, that was the, that was a good shot in the arm that we had back in the mid to late nineties. And then, um, you know, when you get, when you start using those type of numbers, um, and then we, we, we worked that all the way up to two and a half million line of credit and [00:41:00] we operate debt free now and, and have for a long time.
Nick Beyer: Wow. That's, so would you say to a, a young owner who, I mean, is looking, is looking at starting something or has started something and debt's a, a part of that equation? How, I mean, what advice would you give to them?
Matt Mawby: Know all of it. Know, know, know what you're committing to. I mean, I, I think about it all the time because now I do commercial development.
Um, you wanna think inside a business, it's just as important as real estate from a location, location, location, standpoint, location. And if indeed you're tangible is what you feel like the market will bear and. You know, that you can support the promise that you make to be confident in, in that leverage.
Um, that's how we all kinda get started. And I think the majority of the time that you come in, especially, um, as a [00:42:00] new entrepreneur, it's tough. Um, and, and not all, not all times do we have the money to do it.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Um, so the bank's a very important partner. Speaking of that, in regards to those banking partners that we had, I mean, I said it, um, even to my guy at Legacy Bank, Gary Click, Gary was at Ourves, um, forever, and he left and, and, and did Parkway Bank with Jerry Carmichael.
And, and, and that didn't have quite the success because we had that little dip in our market that happened. We all know that. Um, but you know, if your banker's, a partner that believes in you, um, but is also strong enough to a point that you're taking a risk that I'm not saying no to the loan. I'm saying no to the idea.
Um, that's a killer partnership.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: [00:43:00] And. I, I promise today, I mean, could I have made the presentation to other bankers? I'm sure I could have, but we wouldn't have been here today if, if, if Gary wouldn't have own loaned me the money to buy the business in 2011. And it's all win though. I mean, we paid it off and he feels good about what he did, but I, we couldn't have done it without him.
That's cool.
Nick Beyer: Before we move on to like the mid-life cycle of the business, as you think about Marvin, is there one thing that you're like, Marvin drilled this into my brain. Uh,
Matt Mawby: do it for all the right reasons. Um, the thing that I think that I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm in a better position today is there was an aspect of, of his desire to be in business for a monetary aspect.
It was, it needed to produce, he had a dream in regards to what he wanted it to produce. I didn't have those dreams. I, I, I mean, I came from Arkansas. Arkansas, um, uh, [00:44:00] the, the part of, of the dream and what, what did Marvin give me? Um, I say it all the time to these guys drive at five. And how do you feel when you start your car at the end of the day?
And one of the things that, that we use inside our, our EOS system is why, why do we do what we do? And, and we say something that I believe not everybody can relate to. And, and, and maybe everybody relates to it in a c in a certain way that says, how do you, how do you get your hands around that? But helping people live fulfilled lives with a copier company.
That's, that's the tangible device. But how we help people live fulfilled lives is, is that I don't want 'em to worry about a commitment that they had to make with us. I want 'em to, I wanna have, I want that relationship to, to provide confidence that when you do business with us, you can forget about it. Um, and all the [00:45:00] guys that call on you over the years, I mean, welcome 'em in competition's.
Great. Make sure we're telling you what, what we should be telling you. Um, but I'm trying to think of in, in regards to, to, to what Marvin taught me, um, your words critical. Hmm. It's critical. And where you guys hear me say that, that we never would, we, we can never identify that we're getting to be a big company.
Uh, I feel like, um, stay true to your word. Trust the outcome. Not everybody operates that way sometimes when that, when that customer that you did, um, assist, um, and if they're not true to their word. Somehow, some way that relationship goes away. Um, so I would say that about Mark. That's good. [00:46:00]
Nick Beyer: So 1996, you buy in as part owner and you kind of take, take the lead.
He retires. Um, talk through some of those kind of years of taking over, starting to make some of those calls, what that was like leading an organization.
Matt Mawby: Um, I remember Marvin wanted a copy of the deposit slip every day. Every day. Wow. And we faxed it to him because we didn't have technology at the time, so we faxed it to him, his little office downtown Rogers.
Um, and I had to meet with him every Tuesday morning. And, um, one of the things that I'm super proud of is I was in the seat for about a month. And you can imagine the, the level of confidence that you have with the guys that turn the screwdrivers and the service promise and respond and smile and make that relationship secure.
Um, I [00:47:00] kind of felt like I was in a position that I needed to do something to really get them to follow my leadership. Um, and the industry kind of supported that. You know, sales guys, it was a big separation. Here's all these service guys that were really securing the promise, and here's all the sales guys out here blowing and going, which exist in a lot of industries, I'm sure.
Um, but I took it upon myself to give a pay raise across the board to all my service guys a month, and c didn't ask for permission. And, uh, that Tuesday morning, um, after we did that, um, I of course had to go in and tell him that that's what I'd done. And you guys could imagine what that was like. Um, he was not happy.
Um, so that was kind of our first crossroad. Of course, 30 days into the job, I, I, I, I thought make it or [00:48:00] break it, um, I said, well, we got a decision to make. Either you have to take it back and go back and do my job where you can trust me that we did the right thing and I'll stay in the job and, but you gotta gimme some time.
That expense will make up in our sales in 90 days. Just give us the opportunity to do it. And he committed to 90 days to see if we do it, we blew it away in 60. And those type of things were what I did when I, when, when, when I, I didn't ask somebody to do something that wouldn't have done myself. Um, that's the thing that I'm trying to encourage these guys to do.
I was more of a hands-on guy. Um, I was in the office early, tried to beat everybody there. I was always in the one trying to be the last one to leave. Um, my wedding day, uh, you know, I said my wedding day was, it was rehearsal that night on Friday, but I literally couldn't believe it. We, we [00:49:00] got married at Cooper Chapel in Bella Vista and our office was where it was on eighth Street and rehearsal was like at six 30 and I was at the office at six o'clock closing the office.
Nobody else was there. And I'm like, what the hell am I doing? But that's kinda the way it was.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: Um, and we, that, that type of structure and that type of discipline, um, existed for a long time. There was, uh, there was a few guys that, that over the years, um, were sales guys that worked with me, Fred Friar and Chris Meyer.
Um, and those guys were, were employed by us for I think, I think Fred was 14 years, 13 or 14 years. Chris was 14 or 15 years. And, um, man, we had a ball. We had a ball. Um, there's a lot of other guys that came and went. Um, because I think it's kinda like Van Horn's baseball team. [00:50:00] You know, we're, we're on a mission here and we don't wanna just play the game.
We wanna go all the way to the top. And if you wanted to come and get a sales job, because sales was easy, we weren't at the place to hang out. The guys, the Chrises and the Fred's, I mean, they, they made it on numerous occasions where they'd have a good week through Thursday and they'd call me on Fridays and say, you know, I'm thinking about going to have a beer at lunch.
And, you know, my answer was always the same. You do whatever you gotta do, buddy. Do whatever you gotta do. Where are you at? I'm still working. And, uh, we don't, don't kid ourselves. We had a beer or two, but we,
Nick Beyer: we worked. Yeah.
Yeah.
Nick Beyer: And yeah. So 2010, 2011, you, you take full ownership of PBS. Yep. And are there more changes kind of, that come, come in that early timeframe, or what do those kind of years look like for y'all?
Matt Mawby: Um, [00:51:00] you know, it was new. Um, what I, what I probably, uh, what I worked toward the most in, in, in regards to that era was, was um, not having to answer on a daily basis. And, um, the business was, was, was thriving. So.
Nick Beyer: And this is coming out of 2008. Like there's a couple bad years probably. We had some
Matt Mawby: corrections too, back in that day.
Yeah, sure. Um, the thing I always said that I wanted to do, if indeed I ever got to own the entire company, was I wanted to give the community, give, give back more to the community. And Marvin and I, as of two or three years ago, we were, we were both in Durango, Colorado during the summer, and we were talking about that, and we never talked about it after, after we purchased.
And Marvin was a [00:52:00] giver as well. Uh, but he had no idea what we were giving back. And that conversation that we had that day, I floored him. And because he thought he gave good, and we did give good, but we give better now.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: And, uh, I don't, I, I, we're one of those and I think our family is, we kind of wanna fly under the radar.
I don't, I don't, I don't need somebody to, to give us a bunch of praises in regards to that. We feel like the community's been good to us and we're gonna be, we're gonna be good to the community back. And, um, but those are some of the things that make you sleep good at night. Mm-hmm. In my opinion. So 2011, 2012, um, Chris Meyer, which was still with me at the time, um, it was kind of a funny story, so.
He comes in and tells me that [00:53:00] he and a couple guys at church are gonna go start a new church in North Carolina. And I've talked good employees off the ledge before to stay. Um, but I'd never had to compete with God. So I thought you probably need to go. But he gave me a year's notice.
Nick Beyer: Wow.
Matt Mawby: And, um, it, you know, I really thought at that time, what in the world this is, this is, he was my, he was my man.
I mean, he was my guy. Mm-hmm. Um, and then I thought, you know, well, I'll reengage and I'll, I'll start doing all of those roles and responsibilities again. That didn't sound attractive. Uh, so in very short order, he said, you got a fantastic family and he wanted to train Mitch.
Hmm.
Matt Mawby: And, and I always thought, um, [00:54:00] I wanted 'em to go establish themselves and then if they wanted to come back to the business, they could, after they experienced every place else.
But of course, God had a different plan. Mm-hmm. He went to work with Chris, um, about a year Chris left. Um. Mitchell probably saw a different side of me, uh, working with me. And, you know, I, these guys were, these guys were raised in regards to a, a, a statement that I use all the time. I'm not mad, I just playing tense.
And when you put us on the business field, we played intense and we were, we were, we were gonna make it happen. And I stepped up.
Mitchell Mawby: Yeah, I don't know that it was, I don't know that it was a different side of him. [00:55:00] It was really reassuring in the consistency of what we grew up with, um, and how that cascaded into the business aspect.
Um, you know, that was a, that was a, that was a pretty unique situation. Obviously grew up and, and knew Chris's influence on the business. And, and, and Chris really knew where Dad was at. Uh, I typically say Matt, where dad was at, um, he knew where I was at. I mean, he knew that. You know, I didn't, I didn't know that the family business, I didn't know if that was for me.
And, uh, I had, but I had enough respect for Chris. Uh, when he approached me that I, that I said, Hey, you know what, I'll do it. Uh, I was, I was finishing up junior year of college, [00:56:00] uh, senior year. Didn't have much in store. I was pretty ahead of, ahead of schedule, so I had the time. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I thought the time was gonna be spent with a part-time gig and play golf and hang out.
But, uh, I did, I had enough respect for Chris that I was like, Hey, you know, let's, let's do it. Um, but I had some, I had some absolutes, uh, because, you know, he knew that I did not want to come in and be Matt's kid. Mm-hmm. I didn't wanna ride coattails. Um, and, and the thing that, you know, dad didn't share that I'll share 2010, 2011 and the balance of that acquisition, uh, it was pretty straining to be totally honest.
I was graduating high school as a freshman in college. Um, Matthew was still at home and we did have cell phones. Um, we got cell phones at a later in life than what kids get 'em these days. But, you know, we stayed in touch and it was pretty taxing. And, you know, that made a pretty big impression [00:57:00] on me in the fact of, Hey, this is my grandfather and my dad.
And I just saw what our family went through and I was like, man, I don't. Ever want to be in that position ever. Mm-hmm. Ever want to be in the position that I just lived through. Um, but, you know, I had, again, I had enough respect for Chris. Uh, obviously a tremendous amount of respect for dad. Uh, we did it.
The absolutes were, I couldn't have business cards. Uh, I didn't want people to associate my last name going and outta these businesses with Matt. Uh, I wanted to, I wanted to learn the business.
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: Uh, I wanted, I wanted to see what we did. And, you know, I met a lot of great people, uh, in that, in that 12 month period of time.
Um, but man, I had a different, I had a different level of appreciation for this business. Um, had different perspective, uh, and what went into what this business became, but the livelihood that it afforded me. [00:58:00] Um, and so Chris, that was June of 2014. Um, I graduated in May. Uh, we did a weekend trip. Myself, dad and Matthew to Talladega.
Got home on a Sunday and I went to work on Monday.
Yeah,
Mitchell Mawby: yeah. And uh, you know, I knew I had 40 days, 45 days really, with Chris before he was, he was gone. And not that I didn't have 12 months before, but reality was starting to sink in. And, um, you know, I was working in an outside sales capacity. I was doing some things on the operational side.
I mean, I was still learning the business. I was still very, very green. Um, but I knew I had to gain the respect, you know, of not just the clientele, but I also had to res, I had to earn that respect with our people. Um, I don't remember the number, you know, as far as employees that we had in, in 2013, uh, you know, round numbers.
Let's say it was 30, 30 folks and there was a lot of tenure. There was a lot of tenure that, you know, was here when my grandfather was [00:59:00] here. There was a lot of tenure that obviously, uh, stayed committed through that evolution. And so here I was, third generation, uh, I had to earn that trust, but. June of, of, of 2014, man, I fell in love with, fell in love with the relationships.
I, I, I, I fell in love with, you know, what this vehicle was. I, I tell people all the time, there's nothing sexy about a copier. Uh, there's nothing sexy about a piece of equipment that puts print on paper, but man, it was a heck of a vehicle that afforded us a, a, a lot of opportunity to meet people and, and, and, and, and, you know, assist with their needs and their wants.
And, um, you know, really the rest is history. But, you know, the first, you know, there was some arrangements between my dad and I that we wanted to accomplish in the first five years. First five years being 14 to 19. And, you know, you heard him say, you know, did he get real thrilled about having to get back to doing things that he hadn't done for a long [01:00:00] time?
Uh, but he did, he did it for me. Uh, he did it for the business, uh, because I think in the first, first six months, the whole sales organization turned over in its entirety.
Nick Beyer: Oh, wow.
Mitchell Mawby: Uh, so who was he and I
Nick Beyer: Yeah. Your first six months or
Mitchell Mawby: My first six? My first six months. Okay. 2014, June to say the end of year.
Okay. The whole sales organization turns over. Uh, we probably had four to five outside salespeople at that point and, and really went to the two of us. Um, so that was a reality check. I mean, I was 20. 21 years old. Uh, yeah, I was 21 years old in 2014. Um, and so we went to work man and had to embrace it. Um, and, and we embraced it from top to bottom.
I mean, he took, you know, our business is very, uh, like most, I mean, 80% of our revenue came from about 20% of the [01:01:00] portfolio, and that's where he went. And I went to the 80% of the portfolio that did about 20% of the revenue. Um, and met a lot of people, you know, was fortunate to establish trust and, and retain those relationships.
And, uh, had to start, you know, embracing leadership and, and, and management responsibility and building a team. And, uh, my first hire, and it was a joint hire 'cause obviously I didn't know what I was doing and dad participated, uh, was an individual in Justin Combs. Uh, Justin's still here, uh, which is really, really cool.
Uh, very committed individual hustler. Uh, neat story. Um, a lot of similarity with Justin's story and dad's story. He grew up in West Fork and he came out of the, the banking industry. Um. And met each other through a mutual, uh, a mutual acquaintance here locally. And, you know, a, I didn't know a whole heck of a lot of what I was doing.
He sure as heck didn't know what he was doing. And so we confided in each other and, um, [01:02:00] you know, we made some hires along the way, uh, surrounded ourselves with some good people, um, some of which we were fortunate to retain for, for, you know, uh, an amount of time to be proud of. But Justin's the only one that's still here.
Uh, you know, from that, from that, you know, initial, uh, position of stepping into management, um, you know, we don't have enough time to elaborate on all the time in between, but Matthew graduated college in 18. You know, he, uh, he was very much like me and I'll, he can, he deserves the opportunity to tell his story.
But, you know, he wanted to, he thought he'd come try this thing out. So he came to, to work with me. At the same time, he had a, uh, a peer that we knew very, very well, knew, and, and really families knew each other. I didn't know Alex that well, but the families knew each other and he came from what my grandfather used to say was good stock.
And, uh, Alex and Alex McClung [01:03:00] and Matthew started, uh, same day, June something, 2018. And you know, it. It was a different aspect of leadership. I mean, a, it was my brother, um, but it was really the first opportunity for me to mentor. Um, and I felt like my responsibility to those two specifically is I, I, I, I trained them on everything that he had trained me on.
Mm-hmm. And Matthew says it all the time. I mean, I think they were in a classroom, uh, which was an office, the two of 'em, uh, for maybe the first six months of their career. A lot of whiteboard sessions. Mm-hmm. Uh, a lot of crash course, a lot of making calls with me out in the field. And it was, you know, pretty interesting.
You know, we're going in and out these various businesses and I got two of them. Yeah. There's three of us coming in to talk to somebody about their cockpit.
Matthew Mawby: How many guys it take. Yeah, it looked, it looked like
Mitchell Mawby: it took a lot for a while. Yeah, it [01:04:00] looked like a takeover. Um, but you know, after that six months, Matthew, you know, he took on a Fayetteville territory.
Alex took on a a a, a Northeast Benton County Territory, Rogers and Carroll County. Alex's family was very established in Carroll County. So it was a little strategic letting his last name carry some weight over there. And, uh, he did a great job. Great, great job. Um, but. You know, I guess two years in to their tenure, you know, COVID set in.
Mm.
Mitchell Mawby: And you heard a little bit about Covid. Covid was a very interesting time. Um, we were rocking and rolling, you know, uh, we had accomplished some of the, a lot of the things that we set out to achieve in that first five years. But on the back half of that five years was, was Covid. Uh, everybody went home.
You know, we did not know what to anticipate. And when you service 750 businesses in northwest Arkansas, and you know, a lot of 'em went home. Uh, it was interesting. But you [01:05:00] talk about the loyalty that we were able to establish with that clientele and the commitment that those clients made to us, um, was astounding.
Cameron Clark: And were you having people calling you at the time saying, Hey, we're not gonna pay for the service agreement. You had all the above, man. I mean, you, you had people
Mitchell Mawby: that were in a situation that their businesses were just as impacted as ours. Yeah. Right. And so, you know, our goal in those types of scenarios is, is, is how do we create win-win.
Mm-hmm. You know, how do we satisfy what you need and, and still satisfy some of what we were, what we need. Uh, we did a lot of that. Some we weren't for, I mean, their situation just didn't allow. Um, and, and you know, we were, we were very flexible, um, in, in that timeframe. But then there were other, there were clients on the other side of the spectrum and it's like, Hey man, we're committed.
Um, and. That commitment is what carried us through Covid.
Matt Mawby: Uh, you heard me say earlier [01:06:00] d accident, what he's saying that the part of the benefit of internal financing is, is that rather than the client call us and say, I can't pay. We were making calls saying, we understand where you're at. We're coming to see you.
Yeah.
Matt Mawby: We're gonna make this something to a point so that we want you to know we're committed to where your business is at, not where it was. And we trusted the relationship strong enough that when it did turn, they'd remember. Yeah. And they have, um, and you know, that this northwest Arkansas thing and, and, and I guess when you align yourself with a customer and in an organization like we have, and a lot of loyalty, um, that comes to the surface is never talked about, but it exists.
Mm-hmm. Very
Mitchell Mawby: much so. And you know, just thinking about it as we're talking, there were three industries that probably carried us through Covid, uh, healthcare. Mm-hmm. Finance. Yeah. And real estate. Yeah. And fortunate, you know, we had some really, [01:07:00] really good clientele in all three industries. And, um, you know, there was an aspect, you know, we were off by about 30%, you know, at our, probably our worst point of covid.
Um, and, and really didn't know what to expect. Um, and, and, and you heard dad say a lot of it, uh, has come back, but it's come back differently. Um, the core business is still very, very strong. Um, but at that time there was a, there was a, it was, it was becoming really obvious that it was time to start diversifying.
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Mawby: You know, we didn't want to be in this situation again to a point where, uh, you know, we were, our success was contingent upon the same thing that we had relied upon for 30 plus years. Um, and that's really where the technical evolution or technology evolution started. I mean, prior to my time, you know, as things were going digital, you know, we'd taken multiple stabs at, at getting into the IT space.
Um, and are [01:08:00] you leading this initiative? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and, and it wasn't, it wasn't a formal initiative, Cameron. I mean, it was a, it was a very informal initiative. Mm-hmm. You know, I have, I have a, a mentor beyond my dad in this business, and that's Mark Reinert. And, and Mark is an IT professional by trade.
And, you know, a lot of my early years and then into, you know, that diversification effort, he and I made a lot of calls together. I mean, he was my technical right hand. And so, you know, I was, I was kind of the overarching relational role and Mark was the technical role. And we just started to, you know, embrace different conversations with clients in regards to how we could serve 'em.
And, you know, we embrace software, um, we, em, we em embraced workflow and started to help clients become more efficient. Well, that's counterintuitive to this core, this core business, right? Software and workflow and, uh, less clicks, right? Yeah. Less, less [01:09:00] paper coming outta the equipment and our livelihoods contingent upon how many pieces of paper come out of, you know, over 5,000 machines that are in the field today.
Um, but man, the, the response to that diversification effort, and we started to cut our teeth in some areas that, uh, we were fortunate to be successful and had a couple flagship opportunities that we took a lot of pride in. And we started to tell that story, uh, to others in, in, in certain industries. And, um, you know, that's a huge component of, of what's driving growth today.
Mm-hmm. But, you know, I tell clients today that, you know, print's really becoming a byproduct of a bigger technology service offering. Mm-hmm. And, and print becoming a byproduct of a bigger technology service offering. I. It opens a tremendous amount of opportunity inside the workplace. Um, phones, I mean, the infrastructure in which you run your business on Right.
But everybody's definition of it is different.
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: Uh, and, [01:10:00] and, and the serviceability on that, in, in, in the IT space as it relates to the print space is totally different.
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: Uh, SLAs are different. Client expectations different. I mean, if that point up here, right? 'cause it's the infrastructure that runs the business.
Um, it's above the ceiling, behind the walls. If that don't work, they're thinking about, they aren't thinking about the copier. They don't, I mean, that's, it's just a different responsibility. And so post covid, you know, we're, we're having a lot of success and, and, and, and some software related opportunity.
Um, but it became very obvious that, you know, we can't continue to refer business to these mutual partners that we have in the marketplace. Um, because the IT demand was just growing.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: And it's still growing. And, and, and so we, uh, we jumped back into that, uh, pool, I guess what, 2020? 2000. I mean, remember we had a lot of time on our hands with covid.
We were out, uh, meeting with a lot [01:11:00] of folks, but we, the, the sales initiative was different. Yeah. And so we had a lot of time for r and d and uh, you know, we made a decision that we were gonna get back in the IT space, and we went through about 12 months of development. Uh, we rolled it out, um. Onset of 21.
And man, we were blowing and going, um, and, and we were blowing go blowing and going so much that the, the demand exceeded our ability to be able to support it. Wow. Yeah. Truthfully. And so all this momentum, great opportunity, you know, growth, foresight to growth was great, but about six months in we were like, Hey, we gotta grab a gear here.
We, we, we, we can't continue to accelerate at the rate we're operating right now, because we're gonna invite a lot of vulnerability in what we can't uphold.
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Mawby: If we keep doing what we're doing, and, uh, we need resources. You know, we, we were doing a lot of, uh, a lot of that success [01:12:00] came with, you know, a few additional resources, but a lot of, you know, PBS, traditional PBS resources and, um, you know, we, there was a lot of conversation, you know, how do we do this?
You know, can we, can we continue to do this organically? Uh, do we have to start considering acquisitions? Um, and, you know, we were in that space for probably six to 12 months. I mean, we, we, we called a lot of folks. You know, there wasn't a lot of folks that were really willing to talk because the demand was just so high.
Their businesses were, uh, rocking and rolling and, uh, I'm not gonna go into all of it, but, you know, we, we, we found an opportunity to facilitate a merger, uh, about a, about a year ago. And we, we actually carved our IT division out of PBS. So PBS didn't go through a merger. The IT division did
okay
Mitchell Mawby: to, to create, uh, a separate venture.
Uh, and what is centric, you see it here on the [01:13:00] business card. Um, but really centric is, is, is growing to be a division of, of PBS. Right. And, um, that's what we're most excited about, uh, being very intentional with the approach. Um, you know, it, it, it is, it is very much still in an adolescent state and, you know, you look at a business like PBS that's gonna celebrate 39 years this year, but this, this venture is in a very adolescent state.
And so, uh, being selective about how we grow it, um, the, the, the demand is still tremendous, um, of which we're really, really excited about. But, you know, that's the business that, you know, Matthew and I aspire to carry forward. Uh, there's a tremendous amount of brand recognition with a 39-year-old company mm-hmm.
In this market.
Cameron Clark: And what's the offering for Centric right now? You, you just talking about? Hey, the, the, the IT umbrella is huge. Yeah. I mean, are you data security and
Mitchell Mawby: all the above, you know, install and all the above? [01:14:00] Yeah. Hardware, uh, cybersecurity's huge as you guys know, um, you know, within your own businesses.
Uh, so protecting the best interest of interest of these businesses that we serve is, is critical. Um, help desk services, uh, we have a very unique solution in the form of a voice phone product. Mm-hmm. Uh, that we're very proud of. Uh, there's a, there's, we, we feel there's a huge opportunity to really penetrate the market and, and prioritizing that one particular solution.
It should open a lot of doors because like our copiers and printers, those phones connect to a, a network infrastructure. Mm-hmm. And, you know, if the network infrastructure has opportunity, then there's even more that we can talk to 'em about. And so, you know, it managed services, um, you know, it can be overwhelming.
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: And you know, especially when you're going into small to medium sized businesses, some have existing partners, some don't. Those that don't, don't have budget, but they need it. And so educating 'em and, you [01:15:00] know, where, excuse me, where do you start? And that's where we are right now. Yeah. I mean, to be totally honest.
Um, and, and, and, you know, we're eager about growth, but we're very realistic about growth too. Um. And, you know, every day, uh, you know, there's, there's efforts being made in regards to how we continue to integrate these two businesses into one business. And, uh, it's absolutely going to remain a separate brand because, you know, there is a 39 year impression of, of this company in the market.
And, you know, a lot of the market still looks at, you know, this company as a, as a copier company.
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: And there's nothing wrong with that. But, you know, being able to have conversations with folks that, um, you know, it opens new doors. Um, and, and it opens doors that have maybe been forever closed on the, on the print side, to be totally honest.
And, and so that's what we're excited about. That's what we're strategizing around. Um, but, [01:16:00] you know, every day as, as we think about the future and, and, you know, the investments that we have to make, you know, you heard Matt say that, you know, the folks, the focus has never been about big. Um, we still challenge ourselves to be the best.
We're not perfect. Um, we got opportunity. We're challenged by things just like our competitors are, but it's all about how you respond. Mm-hmm. And we take a, a high sense of pride and how we respond. And, you know, with that approach, you know, it gives us an opportunity to work with a lot of great people, a lot of great businesses.
Um, and, and. Gonna continue to invest in that as we continue to progress.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. I mean, we wanna, we wanna talk about kind of the next Yeah. The future and what's next more and dive more. I'm curious. So on your end, Mitchell, I guess you two, Matthew, like what would you, what would you tell someone? I mean, go go back to the 2014 here for second.
Yeah. On like, when you're evaluating the decision [01:17:00] family business or, no, I'm doing my own thing. And it kind of feels like you can maybe combine both of those and what you were doing, you know, I mean, you very clearly, like you're carving the, the next leg of the future. But what would you tell someone who's in the middle of that decision right now?
Mitchell Mawby: Yeah. Um, careful. Yeah. Let it, let it go, man. Yeah. You know it and you guys should know this. This is fun. Um, you know, it's very surreal. Um, you know, we've told a lot of these stories that you guys are hearing today a lot as of recent because Morph Senior passed on January 6th. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And, uh, it's inspired a lot of reflection.
And in that reflection, you know, it truly made me as an individual appreciate at a different level, uh, what we had in a family business. [01:18:00] Um. 'cause again, there was a lot of, there was a lot of impression, a lot of perspective that I didn't have, you know, at a young age that I gained at an, at a as I got older.
Um, but we had something special. And, you know, Cameron, I'll talk about 2014, but, you know, I need to jump ahead to, to 2021. Covid was interesting, um, and I'm gonna be very forthcoming. Uh, there was a, there was a lot going on in our industry at that time, and the big were getting bigger, the small were going away, and then it left the middle of the pack and, and PBS was in the middle of the pack.
Um, but we had a good business. We had a healthy business. Uh, and there was, there was a lot of folks that were interested in this business.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Mawby: Without coming out and saying it, right. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Uh,
Mitchell Mawby: and we explored some conversation, uh, for about two years, really. The, the, the, the extent of Covid as we knew it.
I [01:19:00] mean, we, we explored some conversation and, you know, I I, I, I tell this story a lot. Um, it was July of 2021, around a lunch table at Gusanos. Gusanos Pizza was right next door to our office in Bentonville. And dad, myself and Matthew were sitting down and, you know, I was 30 years old. And for the two years prior, my sole responsibility from a sales standpoint, and I guess Matthew was still in sales at that point too, um, our responsibility was maintaining the value of the company.
Yeah. And in maintaining the value of the company. You know, it, it, it was becoming exhausting. You know, we weren't focused on growth. All we were focused on was retention. And, um, but I, you know, from a very, from a very, uh, you know, really from the beginning of of of my career, I, you know, I told dad that I would never, ever [01:20:00] stand in the way of what he felt like was in the best interest of what he had built.
And that was challenged in, in 20 19, 20 20, 20, 21. And he was, he was, and he'll tell you, he, he was, he was thinking that maybe there was some decisions with the best interest of the family in mind that he needed to make. And, uh, came to him in, in July of 2021 and said, Hey man, it's time to make a decision.
Right. And it's either we're gonna commit to decision, uh, with those that have been calling and that we've been working with, we,
I'm gonna remind you that you got a succession plan that not many people in your position have and, uh, pretty much ask him to take a chance. And, and asking him to take a chance. I mean, it was essentially asking him to walk away from the biggest business transaction that he he had ever been up against.[01:21:00]
And I can't look at him 'cause it's pretty emotional, but, um, that was a Thursday. You wanna know how serious it was. He terminated the LOI on Friday. Wow. And, uh, in terminating that LOI, there was some, and there was some absolutes that I, that I felt the business needed. It was time to reinvest. That was an aspect of the conversation that, you know, all while it was a healthy business, um, you know, it was, it was time to reinvest.
You know, I tell people all the time, all I heard from the time that I started was about all the fun they had and the good old days.
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: And, and not that we didn't have good old days or, or a lot of fun between 2014 and 2021, but I can honestly tell you it wasn't the same based on what I had heard. And so it was like, Hey, how do we rebuild that culture?
Um, and, and who's gonna, who's gonna help us rebuild that [01:22:00] culture? Right. It started with us and we knew we needed to surround ourselves with some people. And, um, so if you're curious where EOS came into the equation, EOS came into the equation shortly after, um, I had got exposed to EOS in a Vistage group.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 17, 2018 and talk about what EOS is. Yeah. Everybody knows. Yeah. Yeah. EOS, entrepreneurial operating system. It was my first EOS meeting or my first Vistage meeting. A couple guys came in, made a presentation, you know, I'm still getting the feel of Vistage. And, um, loved the first, you know, half of the meeting and then this EOS presentation goes off and I was like, holy cow, this is awesome.
They would, PBS needs this and he'll tell you, I mean, I ran in like a little kid on Christmas morning and I had the book, I mean, I had done some research and the time between, you know, leaving Fayetteville, we were at, uh, Fayetteville Town Center and getting back up here and, um, I'll never forget it, he told me, he is like, Hey, [01:23:00] I've seen a lot of those systems in my career and, you know, I'll challenge you of what, what can we take from that system and make it our own, make it better?
And I said, oh, okay, well, lemme do my research. And, uh, and I won't say that I prioritized the, the research. It's just, you know, timing was huge and it, it, and it was, it really wasn't. It, it, it, it didn't make as much sense. I didn't have, I didn't have a tremendous use case yet, but I, I really, I prioritized that use case and prioritized some relationships and introduce myself to some folks, uh, in that time.
One being Dusty Pruitt, um, others, um. In that journey. And, and ultimately, you know, dusty became a partner of ours in, in, in September of 2021. And, uh, that was EOS was an absolute, um, we needed it, right? We needed process, we needed structure, we needed business continuity. And, [01:24:00] um, you know, we, we interviewed a, a handful of, of implementers.
I, I confided in a lot of people from my Vistage group. Um, some were working with implementers, uh, others had self implemented. Um, but I was telling Nick, you know, before we started this morning that I was a huge, I've always been a huge proponent about site perspective. Mm-hmm. And I was pretty adamant that we needed an implementer and, and, and Dusty was just a fit.
Um, you know, really from the beginning. And, and that's ultimately what encouraged that partnership and, uh, still run on it today. You know, Dusty's still on payroll. Um, yeah. It's, and
and we,
Mitchell Mawby: we joke and it's, um, it's just been phenomenal. It, it, it, it, it, it was a vehicle for us to really, I think, assist Matthew and i's evolution.
And uh, you know, there was some other absolutes, but you know, that was a big one. That was a [01:25:00] really big one in 2021. And so September 21 is when our EOS journey started. So we're three and a half years in. Mm-hmm. Um, by no means is it, is it perfect? By no means is it where it needs to be, but that's the whole purpose behind the system, right?
Mm-hmm. Is just keep your sights set on the future and where you're gonna go in this vehicle, this vehicle in EOS can help you get there. Mm-hmm. And, uh, we've had a lot of fun with it. You know, we've had a lot of good people, uh, surround us in that journey. Um, but I'm gonna tell you in the last, and, and the last 12 months have been tremendous.
Um, you know, we've exposed ourselves to, to some really great individuals that have joined this team. Um, we surrounded ourselves with some folks that, you know, came and have gone. Um, and, you know, I tell a lot of people is, you [01:26:00] know, outside looking in and you hear the story and momentum and growth. And man, it's great.
Right? Um, 2024 was a, was a year of humbling adversity is the term that I, I, I I describe it as. And, uh, 2023 was one of our best years. Um, we were blowing and going. And best hardware year we've ever had in all of our existence. Uh, and so we were pretty optimistic about where we were going. And the reality of the situation was, is, you know, just as much as my role was evolving, um, I tried to evolve it too soon and, and evolving it too soon, uh, it cost us a lot.
It, it, you know, that team that I was very proud of and, uh, I had a lot of, I had a lot of loyalty and credibility, um, from them. Um, tremendous amount of respect jointly. Uh, I took it [01:27:00] for granted to be totally honest. Took it for granted and thought, you know, the decisions that we were making was with their best interest in mind.
But really it was my best interest. Um, and, you know, that had setbacks, that had some setbacks in 2024 and 2024 was, um, you know, you heard the term humbling adversity. Um, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm telling you everything that I'm telling you to go back to your question about family, business, and, um, you know, as these two right here, uh, and, and I won't discount, uh, my wife and kids, um, it, it, it just, it and reassurance of faith.
Um. Because man, when we were in it, I didn't, didn't really know how we got here. Um, but the support and the support was different, right? This was roll sleeves up and let's go to work and we'll figure it out. [01:28:00] That support was, Hey, you're gonna be fine as part of it. And, you know, I'll, I'll tell it to you this way.
'cause I think he asked me the question at our annual meeting, uh, in, in January. Um, 'cause we had to reflect on 2024 and, um, you know, uh, my response to the, the question that Dusty posed at the time was, I think I got everything that I asked for from July of 21. You know, and, and, and what we asked for and the succession plan and the commitment that we sought.
Uh, I personally got everything that I asked for in 2024. But it took the team, it, it took the team, you know, starting with Matthew, uh, we were fortunate to have a, a, a leadership team that we were, that, that rallied around, uh, the situation that we found ourselves in. And, uh, in really, really short order, uh, we're in a better place on March [01:29:00] 7th, 2025 than I feel we've ever been.
Um, we saw some key resources leave in 2024, uh, and we've seen those key resources come back and, uh. Super, super grateful for that. Mm. Super excited, um, about where we're going. Um, you a family business is unique, Cameron. Um, and I feel what we have, we, being the three of us sitting here, what we have is, is, is very unique and it's very special.
Um, not, I'm not gonna tell you it's easy. I'm not gonna tell you that it hasn't had its challenges, but it's, it's, you know, it's the commitment that we made to each other, um, and that com we're, we don't lose sight of that commitment. Hmm. And, uh, that's what drives, what motivates it. Um, who, who knows what the future has in store.
I mean, we have an idea of where we're going
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: Uh, and how we're gonna get there. Um, but it, it, it does, it, it, it starts with the people that this [01:30:00] business employs. And we are very, very fortunate to have, uh, those that we do. And, you know, the business is growing. We look forward to surrounding ourselves with, with more great resources.
Mm-hmm. Um, so that we can be in a position to, to do as, you know, Matt described. And, and, and helping those folks see, you know. Provide themselves with the fulfillment that they want.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Uh, in a,
Mitchell Mawby: in a vehicle of work. Right? We don't want it to be work. We don't want it to be a job. We want it to be something that they look forward to and they enjoy being here.
Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. Well, I wanna tap into more what's, what's, what's next, but Matthew here, why the family business for you? Um, yeah. What keeps you going in the family business here?
Matthew Mawby: Yeah. Um, it's unique. Um, you know, I think Mitchell's talked on a little bit earlier, and neither one of us ever had a really, I think, a strong desire to get into the business.
Um, there was a lot that that transpired, especially in, you know, call it 2011. And, you [01:31:00] know, maybe a little bit before that, that kind of led up to some of those things that, you know, I think it was, it didn't make it as appealing then as maybe it was later in life. Um, so there's never really a desire. Um, you know, as I got, I tell this to people all the time that ask us about the business and, you know, similar questions to what you just asked, and you think about the family business, and it takes a long time to mature and to understand what this vehicle's been for me, um, for us as a family.
So, you know, I didn't really have an option as far as what role I was gonna take on when I came into the business. Um, there wasn't really a whole lot of openings.
Yeah. Um,
Matthew Mawby: besides on one team, and that was Mitchell's team. Um, but you know, as I, as I. Got to the end of college and really started to understand where I wanted to go in my career.
And I saw these two doing what they were doing. Uh, I worked in and outta the business throughout college. Mm-hmm. Um, whether it be [01:32:00] coming up two days a week and grabbing supplies and just going out and, and seeing customers and making sure they were taken care of, um, to, you know, trying to sell water machines during the summer.
Um, and that was usually what that required was, you know, go pull 50 door handles by noon and, you know, maybe find your way to the golf course in the afternoon. Mm-hmm. Um, I may have played golf with, I may have played golf with Nick, some of those afternoons. Um, so, uh, so, you know, it, it was, there was definitely a lot that it took to get to that point.
Mm-hmm. You know, 2017, 2018 of, you know, what do you want to go do? Um, and I think I had finally gotten over the edge of this is where I want to go. Um, this is the vehicle I wanna be a part of. This is the business I wanna be a part of. Um, you know, dad talked a lot about community, um, born and raised here.
Mm. Um, have every reason to get every, give everything back to this community. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, you've got 650 to 750 clients across northwest Arkansas. You know, [01:33:00] the benefit that I've gotten with my experience in this business is I've seen it really from all angles. Mm-hmm. Um, going all the way back to.
The summer after, you know, high schooling, driving a delivery truck and going and, and, and picking up equipment and doing all those things. Um, I've seen it from that perspective. I've seen it from dropping off supplies. I've seen it from a sales perspective for an extended period of time, and it truly is incredible.
Just, you know, Mitchell said earlier, there's nothing sexier about a, about a copier. Um, there's nothing, you don't, it's not the first thing you think of when you open an office. Um, it's it, but, you know, the thing I learned really quick was the second a copier goes down, it's a pretty big deal. Um, so it's crazy how it all, how it all works.
And so you go out and you just realize the, the impact that. The business has on the community and, and the influence that this business has on us as a family. Um, you know, grandfather started it mm-hmm. 39 years ago. Um, you know, [01:34:00] without this business, our family wouldn't be what it is. Mm-hmm. Um, and dad coming off the street and, and, and becoming a stranger and getting into the business and understanding it and ultimately getting it to where it was and where it's been and, and where we're going.
Um, none of those things would've been possible. So you think back on all those and those start to, they start to weigh pretty heavy on you as you start to gain some maturity in your life. Pretty cool that, just to see
Cameron Clark: Yeah. The impact of a multi-generational
Nick Beyer: business here in the area. Um, I think what makes it special too is y'all all chose it.
It wasn't a strategic, I mean, y'all all chose it at different times. You came to your own conclusion and y'all know all the facts. Right. The 30% of businesses transition from generation one to generation two succeed. And that number gets even smaller as you go to generation three. Yeah. And yet y'all have laying arms.
And you, you took the words outta my mouth, Mike.
Mitchell Mawby: I mean, I was literally just thinking that there is a statistic that if any family business is going to fail, it's gonna fail in the third generation.
Nick Beyer: Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: And I don't [01:35:00] remember who it was, but somebody in the first six months of my career, you know, challenged me with that staff.
Mm-hmm. And I don't know that it didn't intimidate me. Yeah. I mean. Um, you heard dad's story, failure wasn't an option. And so I just, I never really, I never put a lot of weight in that statistic.
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Mawby: And, uh, we still hold ourselves accountable to, to that expectation and the fact of, uh, do we wake up every day in fear failure?
No. I mean, growing up, if he told us once, he told us, uh, he told us, you know, a hundred thousand times, fail fast and fail often. Mm-hmm. You know, without failure you can't grow. And we've had, we, we've had a lot of challenges, like most businesses have, I mean, we've had challenges personally, [01:36:00] um, but you learn from
mm-hmm.
Mitchell Mawby: And you appreciate, you know, the, the failure and the challenge that you had to navigate to appreciate what you have.
Matt Mawby: Um, yeah. I would say one of the things that I hope you're hearing the most is that, um, this isn't professional business systems, this is our life. Yeah. And not that we live for the benefits of, of what a family owned business can provide from a monetary standpoint.
It's, you know, you're gonna have to get up and do something. And if indeed you can find something that, that, that can provide fulfillment, uh, you know, you ask our newest or our latest employee. And my comment earlier about the drive at five. Um, how do we keep it from being a job? I mean, how do we, how do we make it to a point so that it's attractive for people to work here for 30 plus years?
Um, and how is it that those people made it their life? And there's a lot of, [01:37:00] uh, there, there's, there's a lot of quiet fulfillment that happens when there was desperation in a customer and, and, and there was really no way to, to pull this off. And we figured out a way to pull it off. And, um, you know, it's, it's like being down by three runs in the ninth inning and somebody hits a walk off.
Uh, those are, those are fulfilling days. Mm-hmm. But we gotta pla again tomorrow, and that's life. Um, you know, they, these guys talk about the 2021 Mitchell commented in regards to what happened in that July session, is all I needed to hear was that.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Once it's, once it's their idea and not my idea. I knew it'd work. Mm-hmm. And that was music to my ears, man. It just, let's, uh, let's do it.
Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. What was the same thing you did with your father-in-law too?
Matt Mawby: Uh, a little different, [01:38:00] little different,
Cameron Clark: I mean, yeah, I'm sure the conversations went totally different ways, but there's a moment when you, you know, you look somebody in the eye and say, Hey, it's my, my turn.
Matt Mawby: The, uh. I mean, Marvin found his place with that. He wanted to go, and I had to make the decision that fast. I was gonna take it. And he knew what he wanted to do and he couldn't do what he wanted to do unless I stepped up. And, um, the truth of the matter is, is that, you know, I was 31 years old as well, and I was intimidated as all get out, but I wasn't gonna fail.
Mm-hmm. And it was just, um, again, I I, I don't think about this. I, I feel so blessed since, you know, I wouldn't call it 1986 or 87 or 1996, but for the majority of my career, I didn't feel like I was going to work. I thought I was gonna live. [01:39:00] And that's, I I, I would wish that to anybody, if you find something like that, if you can find that vehicle, you know, in regards to what we're trying to communicate with this session is search for something that can touch your heart.
And if touching your heart's, helping others, and you think about being in a copier company, how in the world can we make that happen? We made it happen. We can make it happen. We do it 35 times a day when they need us. Mm-hmm. Uh, and
I've. I, I just, the, the, the stories that these guys have within their, their involvement, they were involved long before they went to work here. Um, you know, they, they, they made sacrifices. I was at the office first. I was at the office last, and the house that we lived in when Matthew was born, I mean, there was a, [01:40:00] there was a desk in the kitchen and that's where I ate dinner and the, the sacrifices that they made.
But once they got to a certain age, then I felt like that the life that this was gonna give me back, and Mitchell was starting to play baseball and I was like, you know what? I gotta figure out how to, and, and, and it's all used now, you know, work life balance. Mm-hmm. It's life balance. Yeah. Define your priorities.
And amazingly enough that if you can, you can stay focused in, in, in regards to what those priorities are, life will follow. And, uh, if you're chasing and idolizing the monetary aspects of it, don't know that you're gonna find all the fulfillment you think you're gonna find.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Uh, so. That's what I would encourage all these guys that are wanna take the leap, um, do it for the right
Cameron Clark: reasons.
Thanks, Matt. We just have a few minutes left here, so I just wanted to kind of make sure we're covering everything as we're wrapping up. Yeah. So what's the now look like? What are, what are y'all's [01:41:00] roles now? And, uh, and then let's talk about the future.
Matt Mawby: I mean, my, my father-in-law told me when he retired at 50, he's been on, he was on my case at 45 years old, that I'm working too much.
And, um, you've already done it. You can do exactly what I did. I showed you the way, um, and it was very appealing, but that didn't, that didn't look fulfilling to me. Um, what I was doing felt fulfilling. And the what's next is grandkids, um, life after 80 hours a week. Uh, but retirement don't see it.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Mawby: Don't see it. Um, I'm not, I'm, I might not specifically be in this office every day, but the involvement that these guys allow me to have, um, mentoring's not complete yet. Um mm-hmm. And, and, and you got a [01:42:00] mentor with the right aspects that you're not mentoring with motive. So that, you know, it makes us all more successful that, uh, I mean I say it every day in, in my quiet time that, you know, growing their leadership.
And doing it with faith-based, um, and, and, and feeling confident in regards to that. So, I mean, why would you retire from doing that? Yeah. So that's my next, I love, I, I love the side of what we're doing from the advanced technology business and so on and so forth. I think, I think that the future's extremely bright.
Mm.
Matt Mawby: So make more waves. I'll let you go.
Mitchell Mawby: You know, Cameron, you asked about roles and, you know, never been one for titles, truthfully. Uh, and my outlook on titles was, you know, very much the same of what my outlook was and why I didn't wanna get into this [01:43:00] business. You know, I didn't, I, I didn't want a title or a role given to me.
Uh, if there was gonna be roles and responsibilities, we were gonna earn 'em. And, uh, you know, it's been fun to navigate that evolution because I do believe that we've earned the roles that we're in. Mm-hmm. And, uh, we didn't assume them. We earned them. Uh, and, and I'm hopeful that, you know, the team that we surround ourselves with, attest.
Hmm. Uh, 'cause that was real important for us. Uh, the title wasn't gonna carry any weight, or the role wasn't gonna carry any weight if you didn't have the, the respect and the trust and the credibility with those that you surrounded yourself with. Hmm. Um, so yes, you know, from an EOS standpoint, I sit in a visionary capacity.
Um, you know, EOS has brought upon personality testing, right? So we've learned a lot about ourselves that maybe we didn't know. Um, there's a lot of similarity between dad and I, so you can imagine what that brings upon from [01:44:00] a, uh, which I think it was healthy. I don't know who you were telling the other day, but, and I think you guys can probably tell by his demeanor, um, you know, he owns a room.
Yeah. And he's done a really good job at it. Um, but there hasn't been too many people that have challenged in this business, wanted to challenge, you know, his, his presence in that room. And, and I knew that if I was gonna earn this role, that I was gonna have to challenge him. Um, and that was hard. That, that, and, and, and, and it was, it was healthy.
There was a lot of conflict. It was healthy conflict. Uh, and there's still healthy conflict. I mean, there was a meeting the other day that I said, Hey, I need you in the right frame of mind, man. Um, because when you give him the time that he does have that, it, that this, his new position, his new role of forwards, when you give him a time to get on the field, man, he's had a lot of [01:45:00] rest in between.
Mm.
Mitchell Mawby: Uh, so he comes in with a lot of energy, a lot of passion, um, which is fun. We need it. We need the shot in the arm. Um, and, and you know, I tell people all the time, they're like, Hey, is your dad retired? It's like, dad's never gonna retire. And it's like, well, don't you want that? No, not really. I mean, we, we've, we've been fortunate to find ourselves in roles that support each other very, very well.
And, you know, the day that, that, that that response isn't the same, then hey, we'll reevaluate. We're not there yet. Um, and so, you know, continuously through the ship, man, I mean, you asked about where the business is going. You heard my explanation earlier, prince becoming a byproduct of a bigger technology service offering.
We're very fortunate to be 39 years old and have the customers that we do. And, uh, we look at it as an opportunity to better serve them. Um, and that's where the focus is right now. Uh, it's, it's, it's not that we have all these customers and now we have these other services and we're just gonna become this big company.[01:46:00]
Um, our goal is to do it the right way and, and doing it the right way. Uh, the growth would be a byproduct of, of those efforts. So that's where we are.
Matthew Mawby: Yep. Um, from my standpoint, you know, kind of goes back to the things that we were talking about just going into 2021 and kind of our EOS journey. Um, you know, I took a leap of faith during, I guess it was 2021, the Covid times and, and where we were as a business.
And, you know, the thing that we'd always, we kinda recognized in going through the EOS process and, and I. Starting to understand where we were currently and where we were trying to go. Um, we didn't have a whole lot of continuity across the business. Mm-hmm. We had the three of us all sitting on the same side of the house, and then the other side of the house really was, you know, kind of not abandoned, but it was, it wasn't near as attended to as the other side was.
And so, um, in 2021, I [01:47:00] took a leap of faith and, and, you know, it was, it was also healthy for Mitchell and I, um, you know, I I, I reported to Mitchell for the first three or four years of my career, and so, um, that would weigh on me pretty well. Um, don't kid yourself, when you talk about family, business can be tough.
It, it can be tough in those situations. You, uh, I tell people all the time, it definitely got to days where it was like, I'm leaving and when I'm leaving, I don't wanna see you, uh, until eight o'clock tomorrow morning. So, um, I know you usually text me and everything else after five o'clock or whatever time we leave at six o'clock.
I was like, I don't wanna see you until eight o'clock tomorrow morning. And so in 2021, uh, I did, I, I took kind of a leap of faith and determined that, you know, the operational side of our business needed some attention. Um, and with that came, you know, a whole new set of books to learn. Um, you know, dad was really good at it because dad had set in really every seat, um, at a high level for a long time.
And so thinking about family business, [01:48:00] thinking about continuities, um, I, I thought, you know, what a cool aspect it would be if, if. I knew the operational side of the business well enough to where if he was on the sales side or, you know, going out and being in front of the customer, I was behind the curtain.
But he and I were able to connect in a way that it seemed seamless mm-hmm. Between what he was promising to the customer and what we were delivering. And I did, I jumped in kind of head first. Um, didn't know what it was gonna look like. Um, you know, kind of a similar situation in what, what Mitchell jumped into in, in 2014 and had some turnover early, um, you know, had to jump into some seats that you know and take on leadership and management responsibilities.
That didn't see coming. Mm-hmm. To be quite honest, and you think about it, you know, Mitchell mentioned there's, there's, there's guys that are still working for us. They've celebrated 34, 35 years that, um, you know, they, they came to work for our grandfather.
Mm-hmm.
Matthew Mawby: And they work for dad. Um, and, you know, I don't say they work, they work for us.
You know, they work with us [01:49:00] and, you know, I had, I had to gain a lot of respect. The individual who's been here for 35 years, and I've been here for seven and, you know, they, they've known me since I was born. Um, really, so it was, it was a big opportunity. Um, it was a big responsibility that these two trusted me with and jumping in and then starting to just kind of dissect what was going on.
Mm-hmm. Um, and how, you know, what, what had been abandoned maybe for a little while. It needed some, some TLC. Mm-hmm. We needed to put some, some tender love and care to it. And it's kind of now grown into, you know, from an e os term and integrator. Um, and, and you know, kind of dealing with all facets of the business.
Mm-hmm. Um, working within the operational side, which is, you know, service delivery and, um, connectivity and supply chain to finance, to, you know, whether I need to be involved with sales with Mitchell and or Alex's team. And, um. You know, it's, it's a lot of fun. Um, there's no real balance for me of where I can and can't go, um, which is fun.
[01:50:00] Um, I get to work close to our people all the time. That's probably the coolest part about it. Um, you get to, you know, we're, you took the time as a sales guy for multiple years and, and your time was supposed to be, is spent in front of a customer, right? Mm-hmm. Whether they were an existing customer and you're just trying to check on 'em, or you're sitting in front of a new customer trying to, you know, bring them on as a new client and your time shifts.
Yeah. You know, I, I think I've said it to, I probably said it to Mitchell, I'd probably said it to other people inside the organization is, you know, my calendar's not as full now. And I go, man, where's my productivity at? Because I'm not meeting with customers. I don't have customer meetings on my calendar.
Well, my time is spent just with our people, um, internally making sure that we're keeping the pulse inside the business just like we are outside the business with our customers. Um, and assisting in building a culture of which we want. You know, dad mentioned earlier, wired and making sure that's instilled down to, you know, all 27 associates.
Um, and Wired is winning, integrity, respect, excellence, and discipline, and [01:51:00] keeping at that at the forefront. In everything that we do. So, um, very operationally, um, minded, um, which is kind of good. Um, I really enjoy it and, and we look forward to continuing to invest in that, in the people that we've brought along for the journey.
The people who have joined the journey in the last, you know, call it 12 to 24 months, um, that we're, you know, ecstatic to have. Um, Mitchell mentioned growing our leadership team and, and having individuals, you know, like a Jonathan Davidson from a finance standpoint and Mark Reinert from a technology standpoint who've, um, you know, Mark's been here for 27 years.
You know, j D's been here for, you know, almost a year and a half. Um, Alex McClung and leading our sales organization and Caleb Hill running the operational side of the business and, and assisting there. It's, we've grown in, in having these roles and giving the business the attention that it needed, rather than one or two individuals do everything.
Hmm.
Matthew Mawby: [01:52:00] Um, and it's been crucial. So we've learned a lot, um, but we've grown a lot internally to, to make it all possible. There's
Mitchell Mawby: a
Matthew Mawby: book
Mitchell Mawby: that I got exposed to that somebody sent me anonymous anonymously about two years ago. And it speaks to everything that you just heard from Matthew in regards to his role evolution.
And, but that book is called 10 X is Easier Than Two X. You read it, you know, this book shows up on my desk. I'm like, oh, who's this? And, and I pushed it to the side for a long time. You know, I, I do enjoy reading, but, um, you know, for somebody to send it to me anonymously, I was like, oh, this is strange. I'll just add it to the library.
Well, I finally prioritized reading it, and man, when I opened it, I couldn't close it and I couldn't close it because I read it through the lens of our business. Right. And I do read a lot of personal and professional development books, and it's, you know, I challenge myself to read it through the lens of, Hey, where I'm at in my personal life, where I'm at my career, how does this apply?
But to [01:53:00] sum it up, you know, Matthew talks about dad's role over the years and, you know, he sat in a lot of seats. Mm-hmm. And he sat in a, in a, in a sales seat. He sat in an operational seat, he sat in a service seat, ran the company in a, in a president's capacity. Right. Um, and I know I'm not offending him and saying he built a phenomenal two x business.
And, you know, you hear 10 x is easier than two x, that's not revenues and profits. It's actually four x. Yeah.
Give him more credit back Jack. Um, but that book, man, it was just, it was so enlightening. Um, and, and there's a, you know, there's a, a tremendous amount of, uh, examples in the reading, but, you know, 10 x was really, you know, what do you want from your business?
Mm-hmm.
Mitchell Mawby: And, and getting what you want from your business.
You have to get, you have to find a way to get yourself and your unique ability so that you're spending 80% of your time and your unique ability. And if you're [01:54:00] gonna find yourself into 80% of your unique, your time is being spent in that 80% of your unique ability. What do you gotta do? You gotta delegate the things that are preventing you from being in that unique ability.
And that's what really started to trigger a lot of, you know, our, you know, desires to grow the team and surround ourselves with people that, uh, accented, you know, what maybe we were average at and they were really good at. Uh, and that's where, you know, the Jonathan's and, and, and oversight and the controller's capacity.
Caleb in an operational capacity, um, mark 27 years, I mean, board knows where we would be without that guy. Mm-hmm. I mean, he literally brought us from the analog age to the digital age.
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: Um, uh, Alex, I mean, Alex has got a cool story. Um, don't have enough time to tell it today, but just. It's neat, man. And, and, and I, I give a lot of credit.
I, I give that book to a lot of people, um, especially, [01:55:00] you know, generationally speaking entrepreneurs. And, and, and I would encourage you guys, if you haven't read it, um, read it. Um, there's, there's a tremendous amount of content around efficiency and effectiveness. And, uh, our goal is not 10 x revenues and 10 x profits.
If it happens, great, it's not the goal. Uh, we're trying to build a great business and, um, build a business that we can be proud of that, you know, hopefully there's future generations that can explore the benefits of it. Um, so it's me.
Nick Beyer: That's good. As you think about your dad and the impact that he's had on your business career, what is the one thing, if you could boil it down, that you feel like you've learned the most from him?
Matthew Mawby: Man, didn't see that one coming. Um,
you know, I, I, I mentioned Wired and there's a lot from Wired, but [01:56:00] uh, prior to Wired dad, dad used, um, it's called the three C's. And it's commitment, communication, and consistency. Um, and those three things, you know, I say to people all the time, yeah, wired are our core values, but the three C's, the backbone, our core values, and those are the things that.
We're instilled in us at young ages, and it, that's probably why there was a little bit of seamless transition from, you know, what we experienced growing up to getting into this business. Because a lot of the things, like Mitchell said earlier of what was done here was also done at home. Um, and, but, you know, those, those three words right there were, were a very heavy influence on us in, in our upbringing.
Um, you know, dad always, dad used it in every aspect. He still uses it in every aspect of his life. You know, he says it's, it's, [01:57:00] it's crucial here, right?
Mm-hmm. In running a
Matthew Mawby: business. But it's also crucial in your marriage, it's crucial in your friendships. Um, it, it, it really is, it helps be successful in anything that you're doing.
Mm-hmm. So, um, yeah, I know you said maybe one word, but, uh, I'll give those three words. Um,
yeah.
Matthew Mawby: Um,
it's
Mitchell Mawby: not hard. Um, you know, I'll overarch with one word, discipline, and we, I'm gonna tell you, growing up as a kid, I. I asked myself, uh, many times, you know, why in the hell does he make me do these things? Um, I know now. And, and, and, you know, he was just a very, very disciplined individual. And, and a lot of that [01:58:00] discipline, I think, cascaded from, you know, the stories that you've heard this morning, um, the individuals that instilled a different level of discipline in him that he didn't know that he had, and, uh, you know, that discipline then carried forward into our life.
And we were very disciplined and, and, and what the three Cs meant to us. Uh, you know, he was very committed, uh, to his family. He was very, when I say he was, he is, um, we don't need to talk past tense. He's, he's, he's very committed to his family. Um, you know, the people that come into his life, I mean, it's just, uh, at this time you're the most important person.
And that's the way he made us feel. And, uh, he was very consistent with that commitment. Um, and there wasn't a lot we didn't talk about, right? So, uh,[01:59:00]
those disciplines now, uh, you know, exist in our own lives. And Matthew hit on it. I. From a, from a marriage, you know, as a parent, um, as a friend, as a peer, um, man, you know, you don't know what influence you are on the people that you, you come in contact with. And, uh, you know, the, the, the, the, the aspect of you don't know what to expect and then the results of those interactions, that's the faith aspect.
Um, everything happens for a reason. And, uh, that's there for me personally, there's just been so much reassurance in that over the last 12 to 15 months in regards to, hey man, there's a bigger plan. And you know, I'm a controlled freak by nature. Um, I got it from the guy on the end of the table. Um, there's just some things you can't control.
Mm-hmm. So [02:00:00] discipline. So
Cameron Clark: good. And wrapping up here, 'cause this one for you Matt. Last couple questions we, you know, try to ask every guest. First one being, how do you define success? Hmm.
Matt Mawby: The line that exists between confidence and arrogance is a good place to live. Um, and if indeed, uh, success breeds arrogance, don't go there.
Um. So it's, it's a really good life, staying humble, um, enjoy the victory, um, but truly appreciate the next day when you know you can play again. So, uh, [02:01:00] defining success for me would be just, just don't get into an arrogant side that, that, that tells you that you can't fail. Um, you're so big, you're so bad, you're so all the above that, uh, and nothing can take me down.
The world has a way of
Cameron Clark: showing you different. And then last one here to Mitchell, you we're Northwest Arkansas focused podcast. Why, you know, talk about you being the visionary, this next leg of the race. Why northwest Arkansas? Why, why continue to be focused here and, you know, maybe what your vision outside of, you know, BBS, what's your vision for northwest Arkansas?
Yeah.
Mitchell Mawby: A we're very fortunate to, to live where we do and work where we do, uh, we talk about it, you know, we are in a bubble and, you know, we've set it for a long, long time. And, and, you know, the industry in which we work in, [02:02:00] you know, growth traditionally looks like acquisition and. To acquire and grow would require us to expand upon the market in, in which we've operated for the last 39 years.
And that's just, there's never been a tremendous amount of appeal for me personally. There's a lot of alignment between Matthew and I. Um, but that was, that was the traditional trajectory for copier companies, for, for print companies. And the only way you were gonna get big is, is, you know, it was, it was one acquisition at a time.
And, you know, we get approached all the time. It's like, Hey, let's go to Fort Smith. Uh, let's go to Little Rock. And, you know, I typically respond and go, why? You know, we've been really, really fortunate guys that, you know, the, the clients that we do serve in northwest Arkansas have taken us into all those markets.
Um, we've done some things, uh, because of growth in regards to how we service the state beyond northwest Arkansas, where relationships [02:03:00] reside here, uh, that have presence elsewhere. But, you know, the gratitude of just the, the, the economic prosperity in northwest Arkansas, I don't, I don't think we need to lose sight of that.
And, and, and not losing sight of that, that's influenced a lot of what you've heard today in regards to just how we diversify. Um, and, and, and again, the tenure in the market doesn't hurt. Um, and, and so how do we maximize that, that opportunity in northwest Arkansas, uh, to continue to serve those that have been loyal to us?
Well, I. But also continue to introduce ourselves to those that, uh, maybe we've known in the past and there's a reintroduction to be had or, you know, exposing ourselves to new relationships. Um, and if we, if, if, if that's the priority, you know, the growth will happen naturally. Uh, I truly believe that, um, you know, there are KPIs and metrics that we have to [02:04:00] uphold, right?
Um, it's beyond handshakes and, and, and, and you see it on the wall. People doing business with people. There is accountability that does have to exist if mm-hmm. Uh, we're going to uphold, you know, what our expectation is. But, uh, you know, if we were in, in any other market, maybe my response is different, but, uh, our industry, you know, the industry in which you guys work within, i, I, I think we are very, very fortunate.
Um, and, and, you know, our goal next five years is we're gonna stay focused here. Um, and, and, you know, there may be others in the industry that are prioritizing elsewhere, right? And, you know, their, their growth and trajectory model, whether it's consistent or it's different, Hey, we're gonna stay consistent
mm-hmm.
Mitchell Mawby: In this market. Uh, we're gonna stay committed to this market. Um. And who knows, man. I mean, we've, we've, we've been really fortunate in regards to just who we've got the opportunity to serve. And, and it's, it's [02:05:00] created a lot of opportunity that I don't know that we could have ever expected, uh, that came with partnerships that, uh, we've exposed ourselves to over the years and we can now pursue different perspective customers.
Um, you know, we got a, we have a client that's got 160 locations across 20 something states. Uh, would that have been something that he ever anticipated being able to pursue 10, 15 years ago? No, but we've got partnerships in place that now will allow us to explore different opportunities, but that company's headquartered here in northwest Arkansas.
Mm-hmm. Um, you know, it's just big and best. If the focus was big, you know, the, the strategy would be different, Cameron, to be totally honest. But, um, we're not, we're not losing sight of what got us to the game and, and we're just gonna continue to refine, uh, how we play it.
Nick Beyer: Were you gonna say something?
Mitchell Mawby: He
Matt Mawby: said it when he went to the best, to the big.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. That's good. That's [02:06:00] good. Well, I think what's been fun for us, I, I, I don't think we got to know each other in college, but it's fun seeing you shine. And Matthew, like the, the things that I know about Matthew, I feel like I know you a lot better and then. You know, us just meeting today, I think it's really clear how much of an impact you've had on both of them, but also how the different gifts you have live in each one of them.
And, uh, one of the things we like to do at the end of the episode is really just capture what we learned from, from you all. And I think the, the number one thing above everything else, and I think it's, it's your business purpose, is you're committed to your customers and you cannot win if you're not committed to your customers.
And I think y'all have, uh, you've done that well for a long time, and we've interviewed businesses. We, you know, we've interviewed businesses with different life cycles and 39 years is a really long time. And to do it over that arc, to do something consistently and well [02:07:00] for 39 years is, is harder than doing it for five years or 10 years.
And so I think that that's really cool for us to learn. And, uh, one of the quotes you said, you love to spoil your customers, and I think that's just a, a magnificent, magnificent quote on how to really have customer service that out outshine your competitors. So I think that's really good. I think the next piece is the intensity.
And I think that carried from Marvin to you and whether that's a, I'm sure in your worst days it can be, it can be, you know, not great and in your best days, it's something that makes your business really special. Um, but the intensity of going to see all seven machines every day for your first customer.
To 25 cards a day being passed out to how y'all track KPIs now and review those, whether it's weekly or monthly, it, you're dialed in on service and on the business and you can't win if you're not tracking [02:08:00] how you're doing. I just loved hearing about we're gonna actually be the ones to tell our customers if we didn't meet and satisfy what we promised to them.
I mean, that's unbelievable. And I think the last piece, and we just talked about it, Mitchell, you highlighted it really well, is growth. And I think that has probably been the one core thread through all the founders that we've interviewed is growth just, isn't it? It's not a focus, it's a byproduct. And I think you, you capture that really well with your last answer.
If we're providing the best service to our customers, we will grow. And that is the strategy, being the best, is the strategy. And I think a a lot of people, young, old, whatever season they're in, in, in business, it's, yeah, you've gotta have goals. You've gotta have targets. But if you live and die by those and you don't live and die by how you're providing the service to the customer and being the best, you won't win.
And so I think those are the, the three things as as I think about PBS and, and leaving [02:09:00] today. Um, yeah, I, I learned those. Cameron learned those and I, anyone who listens to this is gonna shine really clear. So thank y'all for the time. How can people reach out to you or, or find, uh, out more about your business?
Mitchell Mawby: Go pbs.com guys. Thank you. This was fun. This was a lot of fun. This was a first for me. Um, I didn't know what to anticipate. Uh, I'm, I'm hopeful we encompassed, you know, what you guys were seeking. Uh, 'cause you gotta need opportunity and, and you know, where you're trying to establish this podcast and who you're trying to attract and the stories that you're trying to capture.
Very grateful to, to, to participate in that. Absolutely. Um, and anything we can do for y'all, you know, you guys never has hesitate to ask. So it's been fun.
Absolutely.
Cameron Clark: Thoughts. It was awesome. Ton of fun. So cool. Thank you for listening to this episode of NWA Founders, where we sit down with founders, owners and builders driving growth here in northwest [02:10:00] Arkansas.
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