Episode #136: Feeney Talks with Greg Confessore

#BeAGoodFriend and check out episode #136 of #FeeneyTalksWithFriends featuring Greg Confessore.

It was great to talk with my #friend, Greg

He is the Vice-President of Cricket Press Inc.

We talked about:
Earning Family-owned Small Business of the Year (minute 1)
Cricket Press (minute 3)
Podcast sponsors (minute 5)
4 Keys (sponsored by West Hartford Lock) to being Vice President (minute 6)
What makes Dom a good #friend? (minute 11)
Projects: First, Last, Best, Worst (minute 12)
Confirm or Deny: Did you print for NASA? (minute 17)
Their clients include: Google, Apple and MLB (minute 19)
I.T.A.R. (minute 21)
Dan Hovey from West Hartford Solar (minute 23)
EXCLUSIVE NEWS: Greg’s wife, Brittany is having a baby! (minute 27)
Friends of Feeney magnets are on sale at The Daily Grind (minute 29)
Handing out stickers at the Hartford St. Patrick’s Day Parade (minute 31)
Keating Agency Insurance sponsors everything! (minute 34)
Cricket Press merch: tattoos, erasable pens and yard signs (minute 36)
FoF 4th Annual Charity Golf Tournament on 9/13/25 (minute 38)
Greg built birdhouses for his Eagle Scout Badge (minute 42)
Greg’s OBP was 1.000 for Wentworth Institute of Technology’s baseball team (minute 45)
Greg’s favorite memory of his dad, Tim (minute 48)
Why the name Cricket Press? (minute 53)
Behind the Scenes: We print with The Roland VG3-540 (minute 56)
Upcoming events (minute 59)
Behind the Scenes: We print with The Logo JET VVx40R Plus (minute 1.03)

Podcast Sponsors:
The Fix IV - www.thefixivtherapy.com
West Hartford Lock - www.westhartfordlock.com
Keating Agency Insurance - www.keatingagency.com
Goff Law Group - www.gofflawgroup.net
Parkville Management - www.parkvillemanagement.com
Luna Pizza - www.lunapizzawh.com/lunas-menu
PeoplesBank - www.bankatpeoples.com
Float 41 - www.float41.com
Maximum Beverage - www.maximumbev.com
Sally and Bob’s - www.sallyandbobs.com

Creators and Guests

Host

Eric Feeney

After teaching for nearly a decade at his alma mater in Waterbury, in 2014, Eric Feeney began teaching at Wolcott Elementary in West Hartford. Shortly following, Sam Sohn, the father of one of his students, passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He left behind four beautiful children and a loving wife, Nancy Wallace-Sohn. Eric saw first-hand the toll this took on the family as they navigated their way through this unthinkable tragedy. The following year, Rashad Collier Sr., another father of a student in Eric’s class, passed away in Hartford as a result of gun violence. Rashad left behind two fantastic children and a loving wife, Denise Villegas. The impact of these tragedies weighed on Eric and motivated him to build an organization that could provide assistance for similar situations. With that, Friends of Feeney was born. In 2019, Friends of Feeney Inc. became an official 501©(3) nonprofit organization, allowing more funds to be raised and expanding the range of services provided to children and families in need. Today, over a decade since Eric’s idea to build a community organization dedicated to supporting our friends in need, Friends of Feeney has burgeoned into a reputable and recognized organization capable of providing financial and resource support to numerous families and individuals across greater Hartford and beyond. Through this work, an incredible community of children and families has been recognized, who care for and appreciate each other’s kindness.

Producer

David Chmielewski

David started his video career in the early 1990s working on video crews as an independent contractor for such companies as Martha Stewart Living, IBM and Xerox. After graduating Southern Connecticut State University with the degree in Corporate Communications, David continued his video production career and accepted a position at WFSB in Hartford, CT. Within a few years the news and production studios became his charge and David designed, installed and maintained the televisions sets for the various programs at the station. At the end of 2013 David founded DirectLine Media, a video production company that specializes in creating memorable and compelling video content for businesses.

Editor

Stefania Sassano

Stefania's acting journey began as early as the fourth grade, where she took on the role of Scarlett O'Hara in a stage production of Gone With the Wind. This early experience sparked a lifelong passion for the arts. With a background in musical theater fueled by her love of music and singing, Stefania stepped into larger roles, such as Fraulein Kost in Cabaret during her sophomore year at the University of New Haven. This performance earned her a nomination for the prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival—an honor she would receive again in her junior year.

What is Feeney Talks With Friends?

Eric Feeney talks with #friends! Eric is the founder of the nonprofit organization Friends of Feeney. Their mission is to help children and families who need assistance after heartbreak and tragedy. www.friendsoffeeney.com

All right, all right.

Feeney talks with friends, episode 136.

We're in a special place
with a special person.

What's up? Greg? It's happening.
This is great.

My name is Eric Feeney, founder
and president of Friends of Feeney.

And I use this podcast.

Feeney talks with friends, and I talk to
wonderful people that are in the community

doing great things.

And you've been in the community.

Well, Cricket press
has been in the community for 54 years.

That's amazing.

And how long have you been
a part of Cricket press?

I've been. Well, I was since birth.

Since birth?

Yeah.

I started kind of like, actually a lot
of the guys that have been here forever.

I started by taking out the trash,
bringing in boxes,

breaking down the juice boxes, stuff
like that.

And then,

throughout middle school, high school,
college, I was on and off part time.

And then, after graduation,

is when I joined full time.

Awesome.

So, yeah, we're here at Cricket
press on 236 Park Road,

and we're with my friend Greg Khan for.

Sorry.

That confused. Sorry.

My guy Greg.

I want to thank you.

I don't even know where to start.

We have so much

thank yous histories, but I want to start
with a huge congratulations.

These balloons are for you. Thank you.

Can we get a round of applause?

A round of applause.

Greg and Cricket press.

You want to share? Can I share? Share it.

You are small business of the year.

That is an amazing honor
from the Hartford Business Journal.

Oh. Here's a nice handwritten card.

Great.
Talk about writing a handwritten card.

This is for Greg.

Maybe you open it or read it later, but.

Or. No, thank you. But,

small business of the year.

That's a huge honor.

Please elaborate and talk about this.

How do you feel?

You know, it's funny,
when I got the initial phone call,

I actually hung up because I'm like,

no way.

We always jokingly say behind the scenes,
we don't do anything different

than anybody else.

We just do what we can from
a business perspective,

from a professional perspective,
we're just like anybody else.

We don't you know, there's a lot of secret
that kind of goes behind the scenes.

But, quite later

when I got the phone call, I hung up
thinking, there's no way this is real.

It's like, oh, yeah,
you won the Australian lottery.

It's like, yeah, no, I didn't know what
I don't know, I don't play.

They ended up calling back and I'm like,
really?

That's, pretty incredible.

Wow. Wow.

And the celebrations May 8th. Yep.

That's in a couple days.

Seventh and eighth.
Yeah. Later. You go. What are you wearing?

You know,

I thought I was going to be
a lot more casual till I just got the,

the agenda, and I got to have a 4
to 5 minute acceptance speech ready.

I'm like, okay, so this is this big deal.

All right. Wow.

They gave you a time? Yeah.

They want 4 to 5 minutes.
4 to 5 minutes at most.

So it won't be,
won't be too bad, but won't bother me.

So cool. So cool.

No. You've been helping out again
54 years here.

Park road.

Your contact number is Cricket
press dot net.

What is Cricket press?

Say I teach third grade.

You do that.

Say you're explaining to a third grader
what you do here at Cricket press.

Yep. Ready? Go.

Easiest way I always describe it.

It's, It's a motto that, we haven't
officially created as the tagline.

But you think it. We ink it.

You have a logo, you put it,
you can put a logo on it.

We can do it.

And that kind of applies
for pretty much anything.

When we first started as a business,

it was

traditional paper, business
cards, letterhead, all that kind of stuff.

And the technology's just evolved
so rapidly.

Even in the last ten years I've been here.

We've gone far beyond that now.

And now it's stuff like the yard
signs and magnets and stickers.

Like I said, you think it, we ink it.

But, I mean, it really comes down to
if you can put your logo on it,

it's possible. Yeah. In a nutshell.

So and there's a lot of different areas
you can go within that obviously.

But we've really done our best

to keep up with the technology
as it evolves by the day.

We've continued to kind of stay current
on a lot of that stuff.

And then we've also relied heavily
on, some of the other print

shops in the area where it's not possible
to own all of the equipment.

So you have to learn to rely
and trust the other guys in the area

where a lot of people will say,
oh, what's your thoughts on,

another shop in the area?

And they're kind of

feeding into the expectation me to say,
oh, they're arrival.

No, they're not.

Because on multiple fronts, number one,
I want them to succeed

because they're helping lift our craft,
so to speak.

And then also, if they've got technology
or equipment that we don't have,

we rely heavily on them.

Which for us, it always comes down
to the relationship building.

So with our customers, we take pride
that we are happy to transition customers

to some of those places or the customers
that we've got relationships with.

We'll say, we can handle it for you.

We'll go talk to that other shop and
just make it a one stop solution for you.

So that's been always
one of the big things, people.

We get that question probably weekly.

How do you feel about x, y, z,
whether it's a new shop in the area

or whether it's a shop that's not around
here, but everyone uses them?

The more the merrier.

We are fully supportive

of all the other shops out there
and kind of lifting that craft.

Which, you know, I just talked
with Ryan McGuinness from Ryan Soft Wash

and he said to same thing his
he has a friend

that does the soft wash business
and he doesn't treat them as a competitor.

They bounce questions off of each other
ideas, suggestions, new things.

So that's you know,
how are things. Together learn together.

That's kind of
how we've always looked at it.

I like it,
I like it, think together, learn together.

You started to go into it, so I was

I mean, I know he's doing it,
but I like to ask three keys.

What are.

So let me go over some sponsors first.

We have Keating agency insure insurance.

Ryan keating. Yeah, please, guys,

hit the mic.

Float 41, The fix IV,
Luna pizza, golf law group,

people's bank, Parkville management,
maximum beverage.

Sally and Bob's our newest one.

And West Hartford lock.

So with West Hartford Lock
what are your three keys

that make you great
at the vice President of Cricket press?

What are three keys? Because you
I caught yourself.

You did one a minute ago.

So a key I thought a. Key three key.

Right. Yeah.
What makes you good at being a vice?

What makes this place run?

What are three keys that keep this place?

Number one and probably number two.

And number three are
the people got to start there

because our team, I mean, I put our team
against anybody else that's out there.

We've got guys. We.

If you go back to the beginning,
the 54 years, Dom

was just running around a minute ago.

Dom has been here well over 30 years.

Marvin, has been over here 40 years.

And then we had a couple of years
ago, once Covid hit, Peter retired.

But Peter had been here
for about 30 years.

And then Carol, the original, owner,
her and her husband,

who started the business,
she was here right up until Covid.

And she she just passed in the fall,
but in the early 90s.

So she was here for almost 50 years.

I know, I just saw a picture of you

in the Hartford Business Journal
with Marvin and Carol. Yep.

When was that picture taken?

That was tail end of Covid.

Tail end of Covid. Yep. Yeah.

And that was before.

So the other three that we've got on board
now, Scott,

shot and oh, and so Scott, he's
been in the industry forever.

We've known him for I've known him for now
six, seven years.

We were fortunate enough
to bring him over.

He was working for one of the brokers
that we do a lot of work with.

He went back to school,
got a degree, in project management.

So we sat down with

those guys, had a great conversation,
said, hey, he'd be a great fit for us.

It was a really open dialog conversation,
and it's been mutually fantastic.

Was that Sean or Scott? That was Scott.

Yep. So, Scott, I've emailed with Sean.

I just met Sean.

We just brought on, about a year and a
half ago now, December of 23.

He's been he's an absolute workhorse.

We brought him on.

We really needed the extra hands
in the production side of things.

So we brought him on.

We kind of showed him pretty much anything
that's in here.

And by the day, as we buy new stuff,

Sean's always looking to learn
more of that stuff.

So he's been an absolute workhorse.

And then,

Oh, and same thing we brought on on
we brought on on middle of Covid, tail

end of Covid
when things were starting to open back up

and we were kind of looking at things
going, okay, it's getting busier now.

We got to bring somebody on
and it actually worked out.

We were out the parking lot
talking to his mom, who's our landlord.

And she just happened to say,
hey, I've got a son that just,

just finished school.
He's looking for a job.

Even if it's just part time.
Are you open to it?

I mean, it's been the hire of a lifetime
now, and the rest is history.

So he's been on now almost four years.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So, I mean, again,
the key has always been the people

without fail
that mean that we talk about keys.

Three keys.

I'll give two of them to the people.
Nice, nice.

Outside of that, I think,

it goes
back to being around as long as we have.

When I took over,

the, the short version of it was my.

I had just graduated.

We found out my dad was sick with stage
four kidney cancer.

So I had just graduated, and, August

went down and worked at Disney
through the start of January.

By mid-January, we found out he was sick.

So I was applying to go do
engineering jobs.

We found out he was sick, and I said,
all right, let's put that on pause.

Let's figure out what's going on here.

And he ended up passing
August of that year.

So that transition window was six months.

I mean, you want to talk about
healthy months, three, maybe four.

And that's where I go back to saying,
without the people that were involved

here, we wouldn't have made it through.
No way.

I mean, I was able to rely

on the guys that have been here forever
on top of the customer base that,

not just my dad,
but the rest of the guys had built

those relationships
that really helped us weather that storm.

So loyalty from our customer base,
which, again,

comes back to just doing good, honest,
truthful business with people.

So I would say that's key.

Number three, if we want to do a third
individual on number four,

I think it would go back to the
in terms of the people,

the willingness from our perspective
to keep up with technology.

I think in our industry it's really easy
in many, many industries, as is the case,

but really easy to kind of stay complacent
with where technology is.

But I mean, it's no secret most people

kind of know the print is dying.

I think that our people have bought into
the concept.

Print is changing. It's
changing by the day, and it's changing.

I'm sure it will be different tomorrow
than it is today.

But the technology and our adoption

has really set us, up for long term
success.

Right?

So for keys, I gotta make a note for keys.

People for two, people for two.

Longevity. I'm.

I call it longevity people.

Relationship, for.

Sure.

And fourth one you threw in was.

I don't even remember.

Now, we don't want to ever lock. We,
need our lock change.

We lost a key.

Great. Guys, those guys are awesome.

So our motto. Be a good friend.

Pick up trash, hold the door,
give compliments.

You know, what makes Dom a good friend?

I know you mentioned
he's been here a long time.

Long time running around. Yep.

He was another one.
He started right at a counter.

He started. He came in and he he.

What he saw was kind of that culture of

being a good friend, wanting to kind of go
the extra mile he's been.

I mean, Dom's a people person, no doubt.

He gets to see every day
being one of the front counter guys.

The satisfaction of helping people
in their projects and understanding.

We never know what the end usage of
a project is, but we find everything from

it might be something
for a simple business occasion to,

we'll do a project.

Come to find out, it's
going to be a surprise for a kid

that's going into surgery.

So I know he's thoroughly
enjoyed the satisfaction of kind of the

the outcome of the projects.

And he's been key in terms of helping
along the way of the behind the scenes

stuff.

But, I know that his gratification

from seeing the customer smile,

regardless of what
the purpose of the project is,

has really been that motivating factor.
That's awesome.

That's cool
that you brought that up. Projects.

So we do another game, your first project,
your last project, your best project.

In your worst project, any order you want.

First project I ever did.

Let's start there.

The first project I did was unfortunately
one of the last projects

I did with my dad,
but it's one that I have in my office,

where it was just a

simple sticker
and it said, this box is recycled.

And it was really the last project
that my dad ever did with the shop.

So that one's a small
but important one to me.

Yeah.

Last project, something we did today.

We're actually one of the new machines
we got is a flatbed,

so it can do stuff like yard
signs, golf balls, tumbler.

So we were just working
on some cigar boxes,

where we can print directly on the wood
now, which is pretty cool.

So that'll be more to come on that front
so people know we have it,

but we haven't really kind of publicized
it quite yet.

What were the other two.

Best and.

Worst? Best and worst

best project? We've done

best.

In what sense.

Could be satisfaction financially?

Important to you?

Totally up to you.

How are you on? How do you,

That's tough.

I mean, you.

You got a few, got a few faves.

I think it more so.

Man, that's,

a million projects are running
through my head in terms of worse.

There's,

there's really not a ton that we.

Would label as worst,
I mean, I yeah, there's always good days.

There's always bad days.

I would say best project we've ever done

was when we.

Tried I think what the circumstance was.

We do a lot of stuff
with the aerospace groups in the area.

So a few times we've had to go on site

and kind of hand off some stuff
and seeing some of the other facilities.

That's one of my favorite parts of the job

is being able to say,
oh, you need me to come out and see you.

Awesome. I love going out
and seeing other facilities.

So there's a couple that we

hand it off to some of the aerospace
groups in the area,

and just seeing the inside
and having a sign

that you won't say what you saw,
we saw some really cool stuff.

I'll leave it at that.

Go on and tell us what you see.

What'd you see? Yeah, right.

I saw the exit sign on my way out.

So were you and Raytheon and Pratt
and Whitney in.

Which that that whole transition's
been interesting?

We worked directly with or

I should say indirectly with a lot of them
through Cushman Wakefield.

So Cushman Wakefield,
was kind of the managing partner.

So a lot of the stuff we would do

would end up going through the middle
man of Cushman Wakefield.

But they the group that was at the coffee
shop or the, the mailroom, so to speak,

they were good for

a lot,
but the in-depth nuts and bolts of print,

they were not shy to hand off and say,
hey, this is completely out of the realm

of what I know.

We need you to come in and you'll know
exactly what the user's looking for.

We're just going to know what to call you.

We're not going to know
the actual technology.

So we worked with them now for

seven years or so.

We've done stuff for them indirectly,
but directly.

We've done it now for about seven years.

So some of the stuff
just to see inside of those facilities,

I mean, it's an engineering marvel
and some of them, it's

just really cool stuff to see.

Oh, what's your background,
your extra interest in. Right.

Yeah. Okay.

Because you're a mechanical engineer
background I see you.

All right.

So some of that stuff
in terms of worst project,

I mean,

nothing really comes to mind as in worst,
I think in general,

what usually
we will find the worst scenario to be

will be when,

everybody's an expert in printing.

When it's a rush, I'll say that.

So whenever something last minute
hits our plate, of course,

we're doing what
we can to go above and beyond.

But we always remind people

we may not be the complete experts,
but we know a thing or two about print.

Sometimes. Just trust our judgment.

Trust our expectations.

A lot of people
will have these grand visions.

And that really goes back to
when I say worst.

I use that term loosely
because that's where again,

like Dom,
I know has a lot of fun in saying, okay,

here's your vision, that's great,
but let's get that back down into reality.

Here's what we can actually do, or here's
what we've got tools to provide.

Because some of this stuff,
quite literally,

people envision projects that I don't know
if that theory even doable at any shop,

which is not a bad thing.

Again, that goes back
to fueling the growth, fueling the vision,

understanding, well, what
technology can help us get to that point?

So I'd
say the worst project are the ones where

we can't necessarily get to the goal
that the customer is looking for,

but usually it ends up somewhere the old,
what's it shoot for?

The moon land among the stars.

Usually it's something along those lines
where, okay, we couldn't get exactly

what they're looking for, but
we've got a pretty wide range of options.

What's your thoughts on X, y, Z?

Most times it'll work out.

And confirm or deny.

Did you do printing for NASA?

Wow. That's.

I'll show you the sticker out there,
actually. What'd you do?

How did you do it?

It was,

critical space component stickers that had
to go on a lot of their shipments.

We, during Covid,
we kicked up a lot of government bid work.

There's a lot of really cool projects.

The problem we run into,

and I would say this is probably the case
for a lot of the government

work out there.

That is product
base is it's a race to zero.

Everyone thinks it's a cool project,

so everyone goes in
at the absolute lowest price.

So we don't do a ton of it.

We do some stuff for government contracts,
but generally base

got to be given the stuff away.

Which was the lowest bidder. Right.

They almost always shop on price
not quality relationship,

which again, from our business models
perspective, we're building

relationships,
not just filling an Excel sheet.

So a lot of those projects, it's
like you really have to have razor thin

margins in what we found is other areas
of our business, other projects suffered

because we couldn't
devote the equipment power,

the mental capacity,
just kind of that human touch factor.

We could

it was suffering
because we were just strictly

focusing on volume,
volume, volume on razor thin margins.

Really.

That's if you got to do a ton of it
to make it worth it. Yeah.

And we found it was kind of harming our,

mantra.

I mean, our, our through and through kind
of area is short run, short turnaround.

You need a handful of something
and you need it right now.

That's where we're strong.

That's where we're strongest.

And some other fortune 500 companies.

You had a list of a couple more.
Do you know any?

Yeah.

So I mean we right now we do a lot of,
a lot of booklets and training manuals.

So a lot of those
for some of the bigger groups,

end up in the hands.

I mean, we've done stuff.

We just did one actually, recently for all
the Major League Baseball stadiums.

So we sent every team in the league, MLB

network in partnership had,

a whole bunch of different materials,
but we shipped.

Yeah, all at different locations.

We shipped all 50 states, Canada, Mexico.

Decent amount of international work.

Google,
we just sent some stuff out to California.

Apple.

So some of the bigger places,
usually most of the big companies

that we work with are,

either indirect through

brokers or the end customer of somebody
that we're working with.

So a lot of times

these big companies don't even know
that we're doing their stuff for them.

There are a handful that we do directly,

but the majority of stuff we find is
is broker work.

And when you're giving me a tour,
that's awesome.

That's so interesting.

And I don't know
if this might have been off the record.

I'm going to ask
anyway I art or rti, I tr yeah.

What does that stand for?

I'm going to botch international.

I are international trade arms regulation
something along those lines.

Yeah.

So a lot of the aerospace work that we do,
there's a pretty large call out there.

For protected work that can't just simply
sent be sent over an email.

So we're working
on a couple of different things right now.

Certifications.

We got to have, physical areas
that are barriers by,

security measures.

So we're kind of going
through the beginning phases of,

becoming Itar certified
so that we can chase some of that work

where there's a huge shortage
of supply within Connecticut.

Yeah, because it's in two places,
not in Connecticut.

Where are. They?

The two main ones that we find when we get
a call for it are up by the Cape.

Or down in new Jersey.

So being that Connecticut's got as much,

manufacturing as a whole,

specifically in either aerospace
or even some of the, like, Colt,

for example, Colts
right here in West Hartford,

they've got work that they need
to send out of state, because there's

nobody in state that can be certified
to do a lot of that stuff.

Yeah, we're in Cape Cod.
I go there all the time. Don't know.

You don't know I've been out there.

I just know whenever they call, every time
the customer calls and says,

I need it today
and I don't have time to go to the Cape.

Gotcha. Bummer.

And, tell us about the time if you can.

Someone came to watch you print
something like a security clearance.

Watch you print just to make sure.

I thought that was really interesting.
Yeah.

So there's some of that work
where it's it's, it's protected work.

So, you know, top secret.

I don't know a darn
thing. I know none of it.

Or that's what they told me to say.

So some of that work, I mean,
from a timing perspective, some of it's

super important you got officials
coming from all over the place.

And they just need the stuff.

It's one of those.

I don't care what the price is.

We simply need this done right now.

So we've had a couple instances
where people come in and say,

okay, we got to lock the doors,
we've got some files with us.

We're going to take
your specific machine off

of the network,
drop our files on there, produce it.

We're going to take it.

You're going to sign off that you didn't
retain any files and off they go.

But and again, it comes from a shortage
within the state, of places

that have that clearance.
And I know there are a couple

there are a couple that have it

within the state but are very select
in who they work based on contract work.

Sounds like the show
homeland or something.

You know, I like NCIS or

it's another show.

If you ever drive by with
the lights are on at like 2 or 3 a.m.,

don't knock chances.

I were doing some of that stuff.

I got it, I like it.

You heard it here first. That's awesome.

Oh, and based on your back to Sunday, I'm
trying to get some exclusives.

So you do wide, wide format
flatbed printing.

That was the signs.

And the,
you do interactive e-commerce. Yep.

Now can is that when like I asked, can
friends of Feeney get a site on your page?

That's what I'm working on right now.

Any stuff that you work. It's
exactly what we're working on.

Yeah, that's one of the big things.
Will be your first. Definitely.

We'll be your guinea pig. There
we go. Yeah.

So a lot of what we find,
a lot of the work we do is repeat stuff.

So I mean, we still get the fair amount
of, okay, it's a brand new project.

We've never done it before.

A huge chunk of what we do is stuff
that it's like clockwork.

After six months, reorder it.

After six months, reorder it.

We're working on a solution
with our new website.

That'll allow people to go in.

We're talking actually right now
to West Hartford Solar.

I don't know
if you've worked with him yet.

Great group of guys there. Awesome.

Is that Dan Hovey? Yeah it is. Yep, yep.

I know, so.

He, one of the things that he wants
is he's got a whole bunch of sales people

that'll go out

and they need
some sort of new employee kit,

so they'll have a polo,
they'll have a hat.

There's a whole bunch of different
materials.

He wants to set it. Forget it.

Give those individuals access.

So when they go on our website
and they log

in, they can see the t shirt, the holiday.

I get their beginner bag. Right. Exactly.

And it's only specific for them.

He doesn't necessarily
want other people to buy it,

but he wants his people to go
on, purchase it and it'll show up.

So to be able to offer that really

is kind of that rinse and repeat where
once we set it up, once you're golden,

which kind of ties well, to

we were talking about
all the empty space in our building.

We're kind of working
on using that for fulfillment.

That's a great example
where if he wants to order

or anyone wants to order 100 t shirts
or whatever it may be,

but they only need ten of them right
now, great.

Order the hundred, get the bulk discount,

and then we'll release it as needed
to wherever it's going to ship you.

Someone who wants 10,000 packets.

Yeah,
but only wants 1000 at a time, right?

That's the fulfillment service.
That's why we're getting.

We get some extra room. Exactly.

And that pairs really well
with the website stuff

because they can go in filter by whatever
they're looking for and then release it.

At that point, all we really need at
that point is the shipping address.

Very cool,

eco friendly product lines, eco friendly

like biodegrade, all like paper. Yep.

Which paper is the obvious one?

We're getting more and more into,

the nitty gritty of the technology,
so to speak.

We had for years
the offset press was kind of the,

claim to fame, so to speak,
where it was the traditional offset inks.

It was you walk into any print shop, say,
15, 20 years ago on that very distinct

smell that hits you.

Yeah.

Chances are that was some form of offset.

We got rid of our offset press
about now, two years ago

now, and we got into an inkjet,
which is water based inks,

which are

different.

I wouldn't say it's even better
or worse than offset.

It's almost

too hard to compare the two.

But in terms of the eco
side, much friendlier,

no harsh chemicals,
which has been tremendous for us.

We're even finding to the point
where, a lot of our equipment actually

runs better as a result of not
having the offset press in here anymore.

The vapors that it gave off the VOCs
would.

Affect the other machines.

Yeah. And then going back.

So these are eco friendly.

Everything here? Yep.

And then, even,
the toners that we use now,

which are like the plastic base,
a lot of them have

component of corn actually.

Same thing actually with the later
newer offset inks transition.

So a lot of it is,
either soy based or corn components to it.

And then in terms of the materials
that we can do now,

the range of stuff is just unbelievable
now compared to what it used to be.

That really goes towards the evolution
of a lot of the equipment,

where like, I just said,
we can print on, cardboard boxes now

where it's a water based ink, we can print
on all kinds of different wood.

We're working on a sticker project
right now

where it's, it's a thin layer of bamboo,
so we can print directly on it.

It's all biodegradable, which is great.

That's awesome.

And then you had a big secret
that you're not ready to share yet.

Can you share it on the podcast?

An exclusive?

Come on, give us. A couple secrets.

So which one are we talking?

You alluded to it in the in the Hartford
Business Journal article on 50.

Five, which, which, it.

Ended with big secret. Not ready to share?

Come on, give me some. Well,
I'll give you one.

I'll give you the first secret.

First secret is where I'm having a baby
at the end of the month.

Okay?

There's there's there's the big secret.

Anything else is less than that.

So. Yeah, we're having a baby.

Wife and I.

Brittany, we're having a baby
on, right now, it's May 27th.

But that may shift up to the 19th.

So wait. Like,
maybe like a couple days? Two weeks.

Oh, okay. So. Wow. We're right.

They've known about this for a while.

Yeah, we have,
but it's. Been for like nine months.

And I pretty much
eat. Yeah, eat and change.

Brittany.

Congratulations, boy. Girl.

Do you know girl girl? Indie rock.

Indie rock.
You got the name already too? Yep.

I love it, girl.
That time. Let's go. Right

first baby.

Oh that's beautiful.

So that's that's the biggest secret.

Yep. Cat's out of the bag.

Other than that, a lot of the secrets
now stem from a website,

which is the big one
that it's officially live right now.

Soft launch.

So there's still a couple things
we're working on.

One of the big tools that we're it's now

also live has been,
for a lot of the different stickers.

So it's a tool where you can go

in, you can drop a logo, it's
going to provide you with a cut line.

So a lot of one of our biggest delays is

we didn't have an on staff
graphic designer.

We've got,

a couple
freelance guys that they're tremendous.

We have nothing
but good things to say about them,

but we only have them some days.

We only have them

two days a week, three days a week,
depending on their workload elsewhere.

So one of our big hang
ups has always been,

if we get a project and artwork has to be
done, if we catch them on the wrong day,

it's like, yeah, we'll have artwork
ready in three days.

It's not the end of the world
in most cases. But

being that we're always a short run, short
turnaround, guys

saying on a rush project

we need three days just to get artwork
set up has always been kind of a

that's problem. Yeah.

So that is officially we'll say
there's probably ten steps

involved on the website front.

We've got probably three live the rest.

There's some really cool stuff
that I don't

I can't share yet, but all right,
all right, we're getting it out.

It's coming along.

And it's it's going to be big stuff
for hopefully everyone involved.

Our side. It's
going to make production easier.

The customer side, it's
going to make things hopefully a whole

heck of a lot easier.

Well I want to thank you.

You got into it.
We're going to do a little show and tell.

You know, I'm a teacher, I love this.
This is a cup.

So this is our second.

We had a, glow in the dark green
one that were a huge hit.

As you can see, it
bends silly for the peach beach or pool.

I said peach pool or beach?

Look at that.

What are they called? Silly pints.
Silly pints.

So that was good.

These were a hit.

Sold out quickly.

The the glow in the dark
ones were amazing.

But the white ones are great.

To glow in the dark
when you can find them.

They're hard to find.

They are hard to find blanks.

Oh, okay. Good.

And then you had you did our newest.

We have a

mural on Parkville market up in the local
designed by Rise

Up and our friend Zoe.

Teagan and,

and Jack did this,
as you can see, Starry Night

and our friend, from Rise Up
and it was awesome.

So we got these printed.

These are going these are our
these are on sale to it daily.

The daily grind in Farmington
right over there.

So check them out. They're eight
bucks. We're doing a little fundraiser.

Thank you.

Zoe, Jack, Teagan and Hannah.

And that's.

You made these.

You made our business cards. Look at that.

Now I want to thank you
because these business cards, if we go to

what, like a lot of chamber
events, have a fishbowl. Yep.

These one of our team gets picked
almost every time.

Really?

Jen. Matt.

Marty or myself. Lucky. It's got to be.

Because of the shape it's got.
It's that unique shape.

But as you can see
it's like Eric Feeney, founder all right.

Has our mission.

Our mission is to help
children and families

who need assistance
after heartbreak or tragedy.

I love it, it's really just good quality.

The cut is nice and,
you know, as the circle's nice and even,

the fat is great.

So thank you for that.

So what else we got? Stickers.

Look at that. So this is awesome.

You gave us I want to say 5000, 2000.

A crazy amount. Yeah.

2000 for the, for the Saint Patrick's Day
parade.

Yep. And,

we had it everywhere.

So the park, the,

I always say park row, but the, Saint
Patrick's Day parade is an amazing event.

It was beautiful weather.

We go down by the Bushnell.

It's family friendly.

Then we cut the corner,
then you start to see downtown.

It gets progressively
more like spring break in Cancun.

Right.

By the time you hit Black Eye, Sally's
and the other spot it's like.

Free for all.

Pretty raunchy but
but anyway these we passed out everywhere

and our you and our website
we checked hits.

We had a thousand hits in one day,
like maybe 2000.

We went from averaging like 7 to 10.

Yeah, we had a, like, a bar graph
and it was like, boom, spike.

So everyone look these up.

I remember you had a parade.

There were probably
I think there were at least four people

that I knew from either high school
or college that posted on their Facebook.

And I'm like, hey, I did that.

I did that after like the third or fourth.

I'm like,
I feel like they're targeting me.

I mean, I know this is you guys, but
I kept seeing specifically the sticker.

I'm like, wow, how many of those are we
do? I think it was 5000.

We gave one out to every person.

That was it. Attendee.

And then if I saw, like a student of mine
or a friend, I'm like, here,

pass these out to your friends.

Give a stack like, I don't have time
to give them here, I trust you.

Be a good friend, pass them out.

So very cool and it worked.

I was like, shocked that we have data
to prove that passing out these these

stickers raised awareness and, visibility
to our website and to our brand.

So I want to thank you
and look at that. Good.

I didn't know
I thought it was gonna be a challenge

because it was not like
a flat color. Right.

But you had every detail
because these kids made it themselves.

Julie from Rise Up was the other person.

She was the the main person.

And Zoe, Jack and and Hannah
and Teagan were, you know, touching it up.

Yeah. Right. And the the local.

So check it out and write a daily grind
if you want these we have a square app.

But again the business cards are great.

Recently went to this pancake breakfast.

I tried to find mine.

You did our 50th podcast
at Playhouse on Park.

Color copy, right? Yep. Beautiful quality.

And I looked everywhere.

I was, like, in my basement.

I'm like,
I know I have the brochure somewhere.

Couldn't find it,
but I recently went to this.

But you can see good quality, you know,

staple

got the front page, paid
big bucks for that.

Let's see. So, you know, it's always.

Amazing
to see what the different programs.

You know that guy.

I heard of them.

Heard of him? Heard. He's a good guy.

He's a good friend.

Now, what are you going to say?

I'm sorry.

Oh. With with programs.

It's always amazing the number of,

supporters that we see.

It doesn't matter. The event.

Like I can tell you, a keating's one.
You guys are another.

It's like every single program
we do, we flip through.

You know, you're going to see the same,
like 5 or 6 local, logos.

It's crazy. No kidding.

They're extremely.

Everywhere.

They're extremely they sponsor
little league teams, sporting teams.

Any event, any fundraiser. The.

Oh, you said you're
getting into that this year.

The event down in June celebration.

Keating's always in. Yep.

That's really exciting.

No kidding.

It is fun. Every time we do a program,
we always go through.

And I always find
I don't pick up on typos.

That's one thing. People always think,

somebody will come back to us
after we printed something like,

you made a typo.
It's like, no, we just printed it.

We didn't make any typos.

Most times
we don't even read what it says.

Okay. Usually we'll thumb through.
We're looking for quality.

We're looking at the technical things.

But we could be staring a major typo
right in the face.

We don't even realize it.

But usually we'll go through
and we'll look at the logos

and be like,
oh, this person supporting again.

Oh, this person,
they were in this booklet last year too.

Yeah.

My daughters were in a, an event
at Bristow, a play. Yep.

You did that one. Yep.

You do all the schools too, right?
Pretty much. Yeah.

Especially this time of year.

The, graduation yard signs.

Most of the schools,
if there, if not already.

Most of them in the next couple of weeks
will say, hey, we need graduation signs.

Which that was another thing.

During Covid, we never did.

And it's really gone crazy now.

The yard signs are ahead.

Big time.

Yep, I had oh, speaking of yard signs,

we had the ones with the white
we were on rectangular. Yep.

But now come on in. Come on. You're good.

We had the regulars,
but now you cut the oval.

Right.

And I had my buddy Rob was like, hey,
I want the cut oval one. Yep.

I don't want the rectangular one
with the white. Yep.

So that was a wonderful idea. And it was.
It was like the golf ball ones.

Two for the golf tournament. Right.
Where those cut to circle. Yep.

Cut to the shape of
a. Golf was on brand too.

That was perfect.

Oh yeah. Our signs every every hole. Yep.

It was a golf ball. Yep.
Perfect circle. Yeah.

So that's cool.

It adds a little flair a little extra.

Right. So thank you for that.

Oh. These are nice, too.

I gotta get some reflective.

What are these guys? Coasters?

Beer coasters.

Beer coasters.

More beer coasters.

So you got this one?

Feels like waterproof, right? Yeah,
most of them are.

Unless you go with one of the crazy
eco ones and some of the.

You got the, even
the ones that are not necessarily paper.

Some of them. Yeah.

And I did notice I, I send stuff
through the, the washing machine.

The sticker stays. Yep.

Good quality stuff here.

I think you guys did
the temporary tattoos too.

And those,
those stay on for quite a while.

Those were a hit.

That was two years ago.

And my foolish don't have any tats.

Do you have any tats? Nope.

No tats. So I'm like
it was to be a good friend.

So I'm like,
oh, know, let me slap it on my neck.

And then I did for days.

I'm rubbing. It. Yeah.

But it came off.

Eventually.

And I was like, oh, this is great.

But, Don't make that mistake twice.

That I was like,
at least I didn't get a real tattoo.

Yeah, right.

We got to do that again.
Tattoos were two in.

A row, but we'll do some.

Yeah, we're marching in the.

We're really expanding into Bristol now.

So we're doing the mom fest parade. Yep.

Because unfortunately Park Road
Parade's not happening anymore.

That's sad.

Yeah. How do you feel about
this? Is the first year right.

Yeah. The first year.

That's not cool.

But it's not too late to bring it back.

Let's do it.

They need a new team.

Start fresh new faces. Menu.

Let's do it.

Well, then we'll refurbish up top here.

We got ideas for a here too.

Wonderful tour, but I keep this in my car.

This is my go to scratch pads.

Scratch pad is perfect and

I want to.

Recommendations
usually come at the end, but

this pen in erasable
pen means the world to me.

You know how many errors and how sloppy
my handwriting is to erase a pen.

Because I wrote
you can't write full, full.

True story.
Usually I'm writing like for cars.

I'm like, oh, I made a spelling error
or my spacing is not well in crib now.

It's just like erase. And it works well.

That's so cool.

So I highly suggest these erasable pens
and it's like good quality.

Yeah. My students love them.

Like these are huge prizes.

The kid one kid was like, Mr.

Feeney, if you're going,
can you get some for our prize box?

These kids will sit like best behaved.

It's like the best prize ever.

So thank you so much for that.

Minor
victory. Victories is nothing better.

And then you mentioned golf balls.

Yep. Printing golf balls.

Well, our golf tournament September 13th.

At Tonks.

This is our fourth annual.

You did our you did our yard signs.

But we would love to have some golf balls
done. Definitely.

I'll do we get them
and I'll play this year.

Oh, you should play.

You got to play September 13th.

How's your game?

Perfect.

I need balls, if that's the case.

Perfect for a scramble.

That's great.

Anything you like to share
about cricket press?

You think I covered everything?

Is there something I haven't?

I mean, like I said,
the biggest thing I go back to is kind of

in tandem to be a good friend. Yep.

The people have really been the key here.

I cannot stress enough

the success that we have
had as a result of the people.

It really comes down to that.

So, I mean, even with this award
through the SBA, it's great.

It's fun for me to see some recognition,
a lot of that stuff.

But I also know that it's nothing
without the people.

I mean, really,
the tip of the cap goes to the team 100%.

How many of the
team are going to the event?

None.

Limited. We're going.

Limited tickets? Yep.

So Brett and I will be going, both day.

So they're doing the
the main award event is on Thursday.

And then there's a lunch on Friday.

Oh, wow. Where is it?

The the lunch is, I believe, in Bristol.

I don't even know.

Very nice man. That's amazing.

So yeah. Small business of the year.

You got to get a family.

Are you going to get us? Oh, family.

Family business.
Family own small business.

Yes, through the small Business
Administration.

Wow. Yep.

So cool.

I had envelopes
to. You did envelopes for us? Yep, too.

But I had the envelopes.
I had the brochure.

Like I said, if you think it, we ink it.

You think it, you ink it.

And how big can your poster be?

We can do on our machine 54in
by however long the material comes.

So we can do some depending on the
material, like banners is a good example.

Well, we for the town,
a lot of people have an event.

You go through.

What is that?

South main
intersection. North main. Farmington.

Oh, yeah. These big banners are.

Do are those yours? Yeah.

So we do.

And those are. We're going to need more.

Route to everybody.

Everybody comes to us. So like
I don't really know what the in for me.

Don't worry about it.
We do it often enough.

And those are 24ft long.

Geez. 24 of you long, three feet tall.

And you put the little holes in them
so the wind doesn't catch.

Yep. The slits, grommets, every foot
we need.

Yeah. You made one nice for our parades.

Yeah, it's. It took a beating,
so I'm going to need one of those.

I got a list. For the pole pocket.
Oh, for the wooden dowel through it.

Oh, we need one of those. Yes. Yep.

And we also got a little new logo,

different font.

So we'll get some new logos on that.

Definitely.

Man. Yeah.

I want to thank you
for being a good friend.

And I want to say,

I think the brochures you did for free
for my 50th podcast, too. So,

that has to be said
that you're very thoughtful, generous,

and you support local businesses
and local nonprofits.

So I'm sure huge.

It means the world.

Thank you so much.

Shop local.

Shop local family owned business
right here.

Now let's talk about

a couple things.

Fun facts.

Here we got fun
facts about Greg portion of the event. So

I want to thank you.

Every day when I go to work
I see these beautiful bluebirds.

You know where I'm going with this?

Where am I going?

Where am I going?

Boy Scouts troop 163. Yes.

So why?

And how do I see
bluebirds on my way to work? Yep.

So that was when I was a junior.

Sophomore, junior year,

I was finishing up troop 163
Boy Scouts here in West Hartford.

My Eagle Scout project was

to construct Bluebird houses,
which I came up with the project.

You know,

I don't even remember
how we ended up on that

because we were talking
about other styles, but specifically

the Blue Bird.

I don't know about now, but

12 years ago,
when that was 12 or 13 years ago,

the population of the Bluebird
specifically was plummeting in the state.

And a large portion of it is there very
particular on the type of nest they make.

Not so much
the nest, it's more so the housing.

So we looked into
and we did a lot of the research of what

type of Bluebird House specifically does
the construction need to be?

And we put them up,
we put them up all over town,

but specifically the majority of them
we put up at Walker Park.

So we put up
I forget it was probably 50 bird houses.

Do you know where they are?
They're scattered all over the property.

All right, I'm going to go look now. Yeah.

Most of them were within the,
children's forest.

In the. Forest. In the forest.

Back by the baseball field,
the tennis courts, the basketball courts.

I know some of them.
And they're being painted.

For a reason. Correct.

Very particular.
And it was the shape of them.

It's basically, it looks like a shoe box
with a hole on the front,

but the roof was on an angle that

any less of an angle, Bluebirds
won't go in any more of an angle.

The Bluebirds won't go in.

So it very specific.

And we yeah we had everything.

Everything for the project was donated.

Kind of part of the mission

was to kind of go around
talk to different organizations, groups.

The town donated a lot of the,
the posts, the poles themselves.

Oh, they're on posts.
Yeah. They they're not on the trees.

That some of them were.

Most of them were on posts
to walk. My dog over there.

And I.

I wonder I mean, I know
there are still some up, but birds are.

Chirping.

They are,
they're back. Who was your troop leader?

Steve Zukowski okay,
which so Steve, his son, John Z.

He actually worked with us
for the last couple of years.

So he, he and I were buddies
growing up forever.

Neighborhood buddies.

And then,
when we were seniors, our juniors,

when we both finished our project,
that's when John's dad stepped out.

But, yeah, John's after graduation.

He was with us

for about two years.

He's in the, He's
a reservist for the Coast Guard.

Oh, no.

So he left us

last January, went out to Seattle,
worked out there,

and he actually just came back.

So I don't know if he's kind of
when we say we have 7 or 8 people, he's

kind of that middle ground.
We seven and a half because John's.

John's not doctor K, not Plato.

He somehow involved.

He was. Yeah.

So he was where I work,
who I work with at the school.

He was kind of the pioneer
of what areas would be.

Because he was the principal at the.
Time. Exactly.

Yeah. I lived across the street from him.

Oh, that's how I got hired. Gotcha.

Went on on my. Hey,
I was driving to Waterbury.

I'm like, hey, doctor k I, I'm
a third grade teacher.

You know any openings?

No. Sorry.

I said I'll paint your house. I'm
all year long.

I got someone for that.

And then like, five years later,
he's like, I got good news.

Bad news.

Good news is I can get you an interview.

Bad news? I'm retiring. Right?

I never worked for him. That.

And that was when was that? 2014.

So that would have been. Yeah. Shortly
after.

Yeah.

Because he was there about a year
and a half.

Two years later we went back. We actually
did some upkeep and maintenance.

That was right when he was finishing cool.

He's a good guy.
I like him a lot. Definitely.

And what about your on base percentage,

a thousand,
your your housing on base college?

Yeah.

So my senior year
ended tragically senior year.

We were having,

spring training game in Boston.

It was February 16th.

Named a captain,

I batted second, I walked,

stole second base, and then on a base
hit up the middle, rounding third base.

I folded my knee sideways,
torn ACL, torn meniscus, cracked my femur.

College baseball over.

So it was a thousand
because I got on my one at.

Okay, oh,
leave it to Boston baseball on February.

It was that game.

Actually, the entire interior
perimeter of the field.

The fence had about a foot
and a half of snow.

So pregame, we're literally out there
shoveling snow to clear the field.

So it's hard as can be slippery.

Oh yeah. Cleats aren't.

And it was you know it was my own mistake.

I wore metal cleats and it was a turf
field, which is it's a no no.

But it was either that or sneakers.

And I'm like,
I don't want to slip sneakers.

But you scored.

I scored, I army crawled,
I scored, I was safe,

and that was a wrap on the career.

Are you. Serious? Yep.

What grade were you
in? That was. Senior year. College.

Senior.

I was wondering why you had one. Your stat
line.

It's one one, one one and a thousand.

Wow. Didn't even get a great story.

I walked, stole second,
and then the first pitch.

It was like the fifth pitch of our season.

Base it up the middle, I'm coming around
third and the knee just fall sideways.

Do you have cleats and screws
and stuff? Yep.

Right knee.

That's horrible.

And that was spring
of senior year of college,

so I was nothing but a blast
trying to walk around, campus

for the rest of spring,

do all the senior activities,
and I'm walking around on crutches.

Don't mind me, I'll catch up.

So that's Wentworth
Institute of Technology.

Correct. And what was your mascot?

The leopards.

You're like, that's a great story.

That's like Field of Dreams.

Moonlight. Graham. Yeah, I won that bat.

It was, you know, it was fun.

You were a captain, too, I was.

That's awesome. Congrats. That's so cool.

It was, you know, it really, it
provide a different perspective

because I knew it was,

hate to say, a helpless
feeling for the rest of the year,

but it really was in the sense.
But I still had to.

All the games, practices,
pretty much everything

kind of operated as if I was on the team
because it was.

I mean, it's

cliche to say it's like any sports team,
you're like brothers out there.

But from my perspective,
I couldn't do anything between the lines.

Nothing I could do.

So starting with West Hartford Youth
League and T-ball and everything else

work towards
that season, gone in one pitch.

They are darned are and are now cool.

But that's an interesting stat line.

Last forever. And I had a great story.

I was so wondering, like, oh,
what happened here?

Tragedy.

Oh, but I scored like you
said, I was safe.

You were safe.

That's all that really matters.

I usually asked, favorite moment
with a friend or favorite moment

with a teacher, but due to time,
I want to skip.

And I know your dad, Tim,
was very important to you.

Do you want to share
some favorite memories? Yeah.

I something really.

The first memory I have being here,

was actually at the old shop.

And it's actually working on an account
that we still currently service.

So this has been,

we've been when the the company name
is Moab Management Aggressive Behavior.

We've been in them for

30 plus years now.

And I remember
I was pretty much, like I said,

sweeping up, taking the trash out.

And my the first project I ever did
was working on these training manuals,

which they're one of the groups
that we send all over the country for,

and even actually out of the country
now as well.

And I just, I distinctly remember

working on this project, and it really was
a small project at the time, but

it was kind of the first moment
I ever had of recognizing,

or idolizing my dad for what he was doing.

And again, I was so little, I didn't
really even know what was going on.

You know, I was I was probably

eight, seven, something like that.

That was about when I started,

and then over the years, again,
the amount of fun that we had traveling

and going to trade shows and stuff
like that, it's something

I wouldn't
trade those memories for anything.

I would do anything to get them back
or have watch even one more.

But man, we had a lot of fun together
over the years working here.

And again, I didn't at the time.

I didn't have any intentions of taking
over, was never even in the cards.

It was something I didn't really even

consider as an option
because I always viewed it as dad's thing.

You know?

It was always, oh,
that's what he does. And I love helping.

But and then once we found out

it was sick, it was more and more real
that, okay, wait a minute.

He is human. And the business

has to

either go on or we stay involved somehow.

And it's been it's been a lot of fun
for me since his passing.

Interesting to say, fun
in, in his passing, in the same sentence.

But for me to hear the stories secondhand

from all the customers
that have come in and said, oh,

I worked for the ad for 20 years,
so I work for them for 30 years.

Great guy.

I mean, I've heard it more and more times.

It warms my heart hearing
how everyone else perceived him.

And that's also
what makes it a lot of fun for me

and kind of a motivating factor
going forward to continue

not only do the best that I can,
but do it in honor and recognition

and kind of within the footsteps
of how he ran the business.

And again, with the guys being here
as long as they have, there's a reason

that they've been here
this long, up to when I started.

And now I like to think
at least that I'm hopefully

helping enable
those guys to feel the same way.

They did with him in wanting to work here,
kind of making that culture,

fun, professional, challenging,

all while still serving the client
and putting smiles on the customer's face.

So that's kind of we had a lot of fun,
that's for sure.

That's important.

Wonderful to hear. Yeah, he's a legend.

So I did.

Fall to a, a picture of one that was.

Oh, yeah. Let's see it. Hold it to
the camera. We'll we'll share it up too.

So that was at the old shop.

Wow. Working on one of the late tables.

So it says,

it doesn't say the year on.

There.

Yeah.

So this was when we were on Sedgwick Road.

So that's me looking into the machine.

So I was yeah,
this was probably second grade.

Third grade,
maybe somewhere in that range.

And that was really right around the age
of when I first remember being involved

at the shop.

You got any more to share?

I think I actually we've got,

Is that Marvin?

That's Marvin.

Marvin way back when.

We've got all kinds of pictures.

We used to get flooding down
in that building like no other.

I think there was one of them, dam to see.

That was Bill Teasdale.

So his wife Carol was the one that,

she was our bookkeeper
up to the last few years.

So there's dam.

Dam way back when.

That good looking dude.

Yep. He's here is actually brown. Wow.

Way back when.

Yeah.

So it's it's amazing to really
look through

some of the old pictures
that we still have.

Is one of the other guys.

But yeah, to go through the history that's
rare to to hear a lot of the stories.

And again,

I can't think enough
the guys that have been here

since the beginning, I mean, dam, like
I said, started right out of high school.

Marvin has been here 40 years.

I mean, you just don't hear of people
working somewhere for 40 years.

And he's still here.

He's still I mean, he's
learned all kinds of different equipment

that if you asked him 40 years ago,
do you think he'll ever be running Xyzzy?

That stuff didn't even exist now.

Right. Progression.

So for him to continue

to take on the challenge
of learning the evolution of the business,

I hope he finds it fun.

And I think after 40 years he probably
does considering he's still doing it.

Still here. Yep.

Wow. That's amazing.

Yeah, I'm glad we got to learn a little
more about Greg and Cricket press.

Again, they're at 236 Park Road.

Where did cricket come from?

Cricket press. Why cricket?

Dom could do better. Just smart tube.

All of them could tell the story better.

But when we originally were on LaSalle
road, down in the basement,

a couple of units over from, like,
where Pansy spice is, currently is,

at the time, the business was called X,
the letter X press.

Well, they had just started.

They weren't getting a lot of foot
traffic. They were in a basement.

So people didn't really know
they were there.

So Bill and a couple of other guys
went out on LaSalle Road and Farmington,

and they were kind of

walking around the center,
and they pretended not to work there.

And they would say to people,
what do you think that place is?

And everyone thought the same thing.

Express, oh, it's got to be an adult movie
or adult magazine company.

Well, that's why I mean,

didn't fit

in with the rest of the environment
of what the center is.

So they said in that moment, Don,
we're no longer name that cricket happened

to be what they came up with

in a couple hours, but they were like,
effective today, that name is gone.

Very cool.

All right.

I was wondering that, but,
yeah, we a shout out on one episode,

one 28 minute 30.

We talked about the Rotary Club.

You did their brochures and their fliers.

Helen and Cesar left
you a nice Google review.

They were episode 126
Lucid Productions. Yep.

Jason Bush left you. Nice one.

So, no great stuff.

Again, nice chatting.
We're going to do some.

We're going to see some machines.
Right? Definitely.

What machine are we going to see?

We're going to take a look
at. We've got a label press.

The two wide formats,
and then one of our color production

machines that does Swiss Army
Knife does a little bit of everything.

Can't wait.

All right.

This is like Mr. Rogers
going behind the scenes.

I made a pizza at Luna Pizza with Alex.

I'm going to go behind the scenes
with Greg. Here we go.

You're a real man now.

You're going to be a dad,
so I'm proud of you. Thank you.

Congratulations on that.

Congratulations
on being family business of the year.

Yeah.

Small business of the year.

Family owned small business of the year.

Thank you so much for your support.

Your continued support
truly means the world to our nonprofit.

You you're a good friend.
So thank you so much.

And I had a great time talking with you.

We shot for 50 minutes with Feeney.

We're probably at 60.

So on three will say, be a good friend.

One, two, three be a good friend.

Behind the scenes look here at Cricket
press.

We're with the rolling machine.

Please talk about this.

All right.

So this is a rolling VG 340.

This is the third generation
of the machine.

We used to have the VG two.

Great machine. Just time to upgrade it.

It's a 54 inch wide,
so we can do a wide range

of things, ranging from paper
based, posters.

We can do, banners, a lot of different
sticker materials that can go in there.

So it's eco solvent based inks.

We've got Cmyk, which is a traditional,

like any home printer will have those
for traditional colors.

And then we've also got orange light cyan,
which is blue, and a light magenta,

which just really helps us hit
some of those precise colors.

We get a good amount of,
fine art that comes in

from museums, different groups
that they have very specific color,

that they're aiming for.

So this really allows us to kind of hit
that wide range of stuff.

We also talked about doing
some of the banners,

throughout town, whether it's birthday,
whether it's an event,

something like that.

This will allow us to print on vinyl.

And a couple other different types
of materials that are going to withstand

water,

humidity, stuff like that.

So it's really it's a versatile machine.

It's what we call large format.

It's our roll fat.

So this only will do stuff

that comes on, rolls
the paper, the vinyl, stuff like that.

So. It's used daily.

Is this used daily?

Yep. This is something we use
pretty much every day, especially

as we get more and more into the stickers.

There's such a wide range and application
of what we can do with this.

Really, by the day when we first got it,

we pretty much
were only using it for blueprints,

and there's
still a, good calling for that for sure.

But we have definitely found more
and more in the adhesives.

We do a fair amount of, decals
that go on yard signs.

So that's by the day
kind of getting larger and larger.

And what we use it for.

So it's going to should start up shortly.

Warming up. Got it.

Yeah.

So then they have these machines
on all different types.

The other thing
that's nice about this particular one

for us is we've got what's called
the contour cutting blade in there.

So when we go to do a lot
of those stickers the printhead will see

shortly, the printhead travels back
and forth in there as it's printing

starts
over at that ends on the on the carriage.

And then off of that
can actually come a specific blade.

So that blade will do a circle shape
or rectangle or whatever, whatever shape

you're looking to accomplish.

It's got a built in blade,
and it'll cut out the individual shape

of whatever
you're trying to cut down to final size.

We've had this now about a year.

Roland had a tremendous program
where they did, a buyback program

where we had one of the old ones,

and they gave us a pretty good credit
towards a new one.

And we actually ended up
keeping the old one.

But space is an issue around here,
so we didn't end up keeping both.

So it's

about a year old, but
the technology itself, the VG three line

is relatively new, with the VG two,
which is our previous model.

We actually went ahead
and upgraded the inks, which were

it was a huge step up
just to hit those colors.

It actually was improved drying time.

So the ink is wet.

And when it comes out,
this machine does a much better.

This line of inks, the TR two inks,
do a much better job of drying.

Now, how much of your green packet
will, friends of Fini magnet take up?

Not a lot.

So the software will actually tell us
when we bring in a file.

It'll actually tell us exactly
how much it's going to be used.

A lot of shops will actually factor
in their pricing.

We don't bother.

I mean, it's you talk about splitting
hairs because of how little it truly uses.

If we were to do the Fini logo
at this particular size,

we could probably do a couple hundred
of them before we would run out of inks.

So it really it's sips,
it does a great job.

That was just a sticker poster.

This particular one.

This is a poster based on.

It's a poster stock
I believe we've got in there.

Yeah. That's the poster stock.

Some of the other machines we're going
to show you also do the heat wave.

So we're gonna do a couple other stickers.

Well, I failed to

mention in the podcast
we have some upcoming events.

So please join us at bingo
May 16th at Raymore and Flanagan.

That's bingo at May 16th.

We have our Hartford Athletic game on June
6th, we have our Yard Goats game.

On August 15th, we have our fourth annual,

golf tournament,
which you'll see some cricket yard

signs and balls at Tunc
fourth Annual on September 13th.

And also, I'm collaborating with our
neighbors over here, Acey Peterson.

You will see a menu item
I'm thinking Fries of Feeney.

Like and share in the comments
if you like that idea.

Fries of Feeney I won that at a wonderful
Pop Rocks Playhouse on Park.

Fundraiser. It was awesome.

It was a great gift. I had to win it.

And, wife's not happy, but I won.

I'm adding a menu.

So AC Peterson,
you will be hearing from me

fries of Feni,
and we're going to dip them in ice cream.

You ever dip your fries in ice cream?

I'm lactose intolerant,
but I've been known.

I've been known.

We'll get you that pill to take that.

You know, he's got all.

He's got all the secrets.

Being, alumni of Peterson's

milk. We'll do milkshake. Smart.

I was going to have it whipped.

The ice cream,
but our milkshake would work.

Would be better.

All right, we're doing fries, a fini.
Dip it in your milkshake.

You heard it. Here.

Thanks, Owen. Friends of Owen.

Look at this thing.

It's beautiful.

This on your lap of the car.

All right.

Wow. It's beautiful.

Tacky still.
Oh, maybe I shouldn't touch it.

That was so.

If you reach a hand under here,
there's a flat bed here.

You'll feel it's nice and hot.

Nice to use the heat on

that is used to open the pores
of the sheet so the ink seeps in.

Dries much quicker that way.

So that was also an improvement
that they added as the heated bed.

I just learned something new.

I never would think that you need to heat
the paper, open the pores

so the ink can go in. Yep. Wow.

That's why it looks so pretty fancy.

Hold it up, hold it up.

You should be good too.

I'll grab.

Look at that.

Perfect print here at Cricket press.

Thanks to our rolling machine.

Look at that 54in,

pores are opened up.

Nice. So the ink goes in.

Good humidity on this print.

Cricket press.

There it is.

Clean.

We're here at the logo jet plus.

Oh, no.

The logo jet UV X40R plus.

That's mean machine.

What do you think? Tell us about it.

So this machine is a flatbed up to 24in
by 18in.

Is the biggest print size we can do.

So we can do stuff like yard
signs is the most common acrylic.

We can do pretty much any kind of plastic.

So we've done stuff on this,
including the lid of a cooler.

We've done cigar boxes,
golf balls, glass cups, water bottles.

Pretty much if it fits in this machine,
it can print on it.

The other nice part is that the front,
as you can see right here,

the front is open.

So when I say if it fits in the machine,
it doesn't even need to entirely fit.

It just needs to kind of fit.

As long as the material can fit under
the print head itself, it can print on it.

And there's

such a wide array of materials
that this thing can print on.

We're really just scratching the surface.

We just tried, stretch canvas
for the first time.

So we did some canvas prints.

We did a couple things on the wall
there, some car pictures that we did.

That's on an acrylic.

So that's, it's a thick, quarter
inch thick plastic

we print on the second surface
of the backside of the material.

And then you can see from the other side
kind of the image come through,

which is pretty cool.

That's awesome. That's thick plastic.

Yeah. So it's good.

I mean, the other thing you can do is
you can print in multiple layers,

so we can do stuff like signage for hotels
or hospitals

where you can have that plaque
that goes outside of an office

or whatever
it may be, and can actually do res print.

So we can print Braille on there,
which is really nice.

So we're still kind of experimenting
on how to accomplish that, but

once we master
it, it'll be something that's

something else that we can offer.

So so what are we printing here.

So we've got here a cigar box.

So this is one there's all different wood
finishes that we've tested.

Printing on this particular one is a tri
color blend is the particular color.

So I'm just going to go ahead and hit
the start button here that, Let's go.

We're printing on the logo jet.

We're printing it a cigar box.

And any guesses what we're going
to print on this cigar box?

Stefania. Logo.

Good job.

It's going in.

Tell us side by side.

Oh, there we go.

Open the room.

Open the hood.

This particular machine
doesn't have a white jewel.

This one has white and clear.

So a lot of times
this one I did put right down first.

But usually what we can do is put printing
on a dark surface, white first,

then put your color on top of it.

Inks pretty much all of our machines.

You want, pretty much all the machines,
the inks themselves are toners act

almost like a stained glass effect,

where it's going to take on
whatever the background colors.

So in this case, we're doing
just a green logo.

So you're going to see the green,
but you'll also see

the brown of the would come through it.

Whereas we can

also if we did it with white first
it would put down that white layer first.

Then it would put the ink color

on top of it so it pop like you would see
on pretty much any other material.

So this one. Yeah.

So this has got that strong base of wood
behind it

rather than having that base of white.

So there's a couple different ways
to do it and experiment with it really.

It depends on what
the outcome you're looking for is.

Very cool.

Might

be a good friend.

Cigars.

That's awesome.

Well, I appreciate that too.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

It's a win win.

Great podcast.

I'm coming home with some swag.

I got erasable pens, posters.

This is beautiful.

I really enjoyed this podcast.

Learn so much about Cricket press.

And my friend Greg.

We're doing wonderful things over here.

It's pretty cool.

So the difference between that one
and this one,

the main difference between the Roland
and the logo jet is the types of ink.

So you got on the rolling
the eco solvent based inks.

So those are just going to dry with air.

This one actually uses a UV lamp and cures
those inks.

So instantly
it's already done to the touch.

Those things are as dry
as they're ever going to be.

A good friend.

This is great.

Very cool.

This are going to put cigars
in the raffle.

Here you go. Perfect.
At the golf tournament.

Definitely put some balls inside of it.

It's nice and warm, but.

Yep. You said it keeps the wood finish.

Yep. With the green on the background.

Be a good friend

again.

This is podcast
episode 136 here at Cricket press.

Thank you Greg for being a good friend.

Thank you to all of our friends
and listeners.

Please like and subscribe and thank you.

Direct Line Media. Be a good friend.