• 45:35
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Brand promise, apparel redefined, print on demand, corporate branding, quality and speed, Shopify app, manufacturing execution system, digital print, branded apparel, customer experience, entrepreneurship, marketing strategy, technology commitment, workforce uniformity, business growth.
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Curt Anderson, Speaker 1, John LaRoy
Damon Pistulka 00:03
Alright, everyone, it is Friday, and you know what that means. It’s time for stop being the best kept secret. I am one of the CO hosts here today, and I’m I’m actually going to put up the display name so we know who’s all here today. I’m Damon pistolka. That pretty gentleman right over there is Kurt Anderson, co host, and today we’re going to be talking about, how do you define your brand promise with none other than John Leroy from apparel redefined Kurt. I’m so excited, I’m just going to let you take it away so I can sit here in my excitement,
Curt Anderson 00:33
dude, we’re like, we’re like, two proud uncles today, like hanging out with our dear friend, the young man, the the fearless, relentless entrepreneur John Leroy from apparel redefined John, how are you? Dude,
John LaRoy 00:45
I’m great. Are you guys doing,
Curt Anderson 00:48
man, are you kidding me? So now, dude, you’re a repeat offender. You I think you need to, you need to be a better judge of character. You know that. You know, like, did your mom tell you not to hang out with, like, with weird people, right?
John LaRoy 00:59
Yeah, I didn’t listen, though, obviously, yeah,
Curt Anderson 01:01
yep. All right, dude, we you’ve been on multiple times, and so we’ve got your dear, dear, close friend and just we admire you, respect you. You are doing amazing work south side of Chicago. So let’s dive in. First and foremost, who is a prairie defined? How are you guys making the world a better place?
John LaRoy 01:20
It’s a loaded question, but yeah, so apparently, defined we are your everything, branded apparel, merchandise provider. We’ve been in business now for 19 years. We, you know, got lucky enough to be introduced to Kurt and his team at B to B TAIL. What about three and a half, four years ago? Right? And the reason why people might know about us now is because of Kurt, you know, for the longest time we were, you know, kind of existing in the background, in the shadows, just keeping our head down and doing what we do, like most manufacturers out there. And, you know, as we know, COVID changed a lot of things, right? And it kind of was the impetus for us to stop being a best kept secret. So the the easiest way to explain what we do is we put logos on things. You can see Steve stuff behind us. You know, we we cut our teeth in athletics. We do a lot for Under Armor, Nike, Adidas, Reebok. Since COVID, we’ve done a lot more in the corporate hospitality, health care, all those different avenues and corporate, you know, my dad grew up in the corporate world. It was shirt and tie for, you know, 40 years, right? Those days are long gone. I mean, really, the only people that wear shirt and tie now are real estate agents and bankers. And even that’s changing, right? So the branded look, you know what we’re doing in zoom didn’t really exist five, six years ago, coming out of COVID, this type of interaction is the norm. And we really started to lean into corporate branding, because a lot of this, a lot of this was being done, and people are wearing t shirt or whatever, and companies like, Hey, if you’re not going to come to the office, at least look like you work for the company, get out of the pajamas type thing and put on a polo. So we did a lot of corporate uniforming, lot of blue collar, you know, companies that still, you know, essential and need to show up and get stuff done. But yeah, we’ve, we’ve really focused on quality and speed, right? We’re not the cheapest in the area. We know that. But the two two of two parts of the triangle that we really like to control is quality and speed come out of COVID, we really started leaning into E commerce and print on demand, right, just in time. Apparel is something that we Kurt and I kind of coined and really empowering, you know, the little guy in his basement, or the big company that’s already been established out there to enhance or build their brand through through custom merch, right? We’ve we developed our own Shopify app. We developed our own software, our manufacturing execution system software that really propelled the business forward and looking to break ground our new facility here, hopefully in the latter part of of 2025, so a lot of exciting things going on. It’s been a challenging last six, seven months with all the uncertainty. But the only thing that’s certain ahead is more uncertainty, but we’re here to deal with it, right? See,
Curt Anderson 04:11
certain is more certainty. So we have a ton of things to cover today, so I’m going to, we’re going to go fast and furious. So first off, so for folks out there if they heard, you know, like any of our logistic friends out there heard, just in time, okay, print on demand. Just take that one step further. What do you mean by just in time, apparel or, like, print on demand? What is that for folks out there? That might be a new concept.
John LaRoy 04:33
Yeah, absolutely good question. So the the traditional, or the old way of doing things is, you know, e Commerce has been around, you know, since the 90s, right? But that way of doing business was, was built on anticipated demand. And you would have a design, right? You know, like these ones up in the corner, artists would create the design. You have a visual concept, and then you would pre buy X amount per size, per color, and it would go to a warehouse. More United States, usually in the Midwest, order would be placed and it would be shipped out. Go to a shelf, pull it and ship out. You really run the risk right there. You know, if you’re if you’re a brand entering the market, you got to commit to a vast amount of inventory that unite it might never sell, or you sell out all of your xls, and you have a ton of smalls left over. And this is the way it was for years and years. And there’s a lot of waste. There’s, you know, a lot of stuff being sent to third world countries that, I mean, you see it every year. It still happens when you pre print the loser of whatever, you know, any MLB, that type of stuff. But even that’s been brought down to a to a specific minimum of risk tolerance, because you know whether, wherever you stand on the green initiative, the reality is, one of the biggest things in landfills is clothing, right? People, you know, everyone’s got probably 20 to 30 T shirts at home, and you cycle through them, but think about all the stuff that you buy that doesn’t fit right, or the designs out of date. It was for an event, you know, it turns into a rag or ends up in a landfill. And there’s a lot of stuff prior to print on demand, it would end in a landfill that was brand new, never worn. It just didn’t sell. Sucked, or it didn’t suck, but people didn’t appreciate it, right? So this whole concept of just in time is that when you go online and you buy, the instant that it’s bought, it’s made, right? So we call it the customer, inside of 48 hours, your only risk in this whole new ecosystem of E commerce is your design, right? You get it up on the website, it’s up to you to market it and push it and then Shopify, which is exploded in popularity. I mean, it’s the largest online marketplace in the world, and you you can literally sit at home in your in your pajamas and create a Shopify store, if you got an influencer to push it, or whatever, you could be creating merch today with the Shopify store, with our app, and really have no risk other than your design. The second something sold, product is pulled off our shelf or bought, arrives to us in 12 to 24 hours. We print it, ship it inside of 48 so it’s, it’s really allowing it to reduce waste, increase profit and minimize risk, you know. So it’s, it’s kind of a win win for everybody. It’s one of those rare situations where you can truly say all interested parties do win out, right? Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 07:27
and it really is interesting how that takes your your you know, people, when you look at a supply chain, you really don’t, until it gets to a point where it really hurts, understand how much, how many dollars are in that supply chain, right? So if I need three months of product, because I want a month in my in my inventory, and I want a month that’s going to be in transit from my supplier, and I want, you know, maybe even another month of raw materials at a supplier, or something like that, that’s a significant outlay of capital that you you’re going to have to undertake to do that. And if you can take that down to on demand, that’s a huge amount of cash that your business doesn’t need. You know, especially starting up and scaling. Because the one thing that every time we scale the E commerce companies quickly is they go, Well, we’re making a lot of money, but we don’t have cash. Well, when you look at in the backside of most of those inventory is where you have to keep pumping that inventory up to keep up with the volume. So that’s a that in time. Just in time, inventory like that, just in time, product like that is a huge thing for them. Yeah, yeah.
John LaRoy 08:36
Really, I mean, like, really ushered in by the Amazon stuff, you know, yeah, when I entered this industry in 2006 a three week turn, time was pretty damn good, right? Yeah, if you’re doing three to three week turns now, you’re out of business and, and really, you know, you’re adding customization to a product and then shipping out where, you know, Amazon is in the business of doing that now, but the majority of their stuff is pulling a stock product off the shelf, yeah, and being extremely efficient with all their logistics. But, I mean, you can order something from Amazon having three hours now, and it’s like that has changed the mindset of the consumer, where three weeks is unacceptable, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 09:12
yeah, that’s a huge, huge influence. Well, this
Curt Anderson 09:16
is absolutely phenomenal. And I’ve had a front row of seat multiple things. I’ve been at John’s facility multiple times, so I get to see this in action, and John, I’ve had the privilege you and I do a little interview podcast program together, and we’ve interviewed dozens of your customers to hear this for firsthand. So again, I just want to recap number one, if you’re a company out there, small business, manufacturer, whatever it might be, and we’re going to dive into like your brand promise. But you know, if you want your team, man, what’s more together, coming home, coming in cohesively with like, where you know they come in wearing their T shirts, their polo shirts, with your company logo. It’s just so powerful. So now number one, you don’t have to have a closet full of inventory. John can just like, hey, there’s my thumbs up. So John can just have. That, you know, this on the fly, and just you need something today you hire somebody hired new or somebody ruined something. You know, you could call John gets it immediately. The second big thing, are there any entrepreneurs out there looking for a side hustle? Man, I’m telling you, John Leroy is your guy to call because, like, you literally could be in business by Monday, right? I know John, like, I don’t find that, right?
John LaRoy 10:22
I mean, it really empowers the gig economy, right? Where, if you want to create, there’s so many people out there that can. And, you know, you have tools now that we didn’t have two years ago, where generative AI, you could prompt something. I mean, we went from prompt to print in 10 minutes. Like, you know, a picture of Darth Vader coming out of It’s wild. And the in the quality and the accuracy is getting better, literally, every day, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 10:49
yeah. Prompt to print, man, that’s, yeah, that’s, that’s a pretty wild concept. I think, back to just the, you know, the businesses that we have around us every day, right? The they could be manufacturing, they could be service businesses. They could be so many different kind of bit, restaurants, hotels, whatever it is that branded look is so important. You know, even when we were running manufacturing companies, all the delivery drivers, anybody that’s interacting with the public, you know, and the people in the factory, you want everyone to have that. So with the print on demand, with any of those companies, allows them to think about, Hey, I just hired Damon. Let’s get him all the clothing he needs from us. And it’s like, boom, Mm hmm. They get what they need, like that. That would be really cool to be able to do that as needed. Just bring it on when you need
John LaRoy 11:41
- Yeah. I mean, I feel like everyone, if they haven’t gone through it, they’re unique, but everyone through through the labor crisis, right? You know, we didn’t have enough people coming out of COVID. You have supply chain, you have labor issues, and especially in today’s workforce, it’s really important to give them that sense of purpose and give that sense of belonging, like day one, right? Where the old school mentality of like, Hey, you’re lucky we hired you. Now it’s kind of like we need to cater to you, to make sure you stay here, which is you can where you can accept it, right? And people understand the power of getting, you know, a merch pack. You know, day one you walk in, you’re part of the team. You’re not some guy not wearing the shirt, and everyone else is, and you feel like an outsider. Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s a big focus, and one of our biggest clients for years. I mean, the second someone was hired, the next day, you know, a custom, branded package would show up with 5t shirts, polo hat and a quarter zip. And, you know, it’s, it’s a little thing, but it goes a long way. Oh yes, yes,
Curt Anderson 12:46
John, do you get any if I say the word Miss? Are there any miss, any pushback on print, on demand that we want to dispel right here, right now that kind of drives you crazy. Like, is there any like, is there like, everything’s like, music to mine and Damon’s ears? Is there something that like, Are there folks that give you pushback on a print
John LaRoy 13:03
on demand? Yeah, because there’s print on demand done well, and there’s print on demand done crappy. You know, it’s like, it’s, it’s, it’s not you get what you pay for, type thing, but it the equipment matters, right? This is still manufacturing. The inks matter, like all the inputs that come together to create the product, people, the personnel, the equipment, the technology, all that, if it’s not done well, will result. Doesn’t matter if it’s print on demand or not in a poor product, right? Being in screen printing for 19 years, we have a staff of snobs, right? The Digital comes anytime there’s change in a marketplace, most people dig in and say, that’ll never work. It’s a piece of shit. I’m not putting my name on it, right? Yeah, I was that guy. And, you know, as as more and more than COVID happens, I’m like, Hey, how can we how can we stop bitching and get involved here, but get involved for the right reasons, where our digital print will stand next to our our screen print, you know, and feel wash, testing all those type of things, right? Because I can’t, I can’t put a product out that I’m not proud of. And a lot of what you saw in the digital print space on apparel up until then was really subpar, but it entered the market 10 years ago. So it’s not totally a new concept, but what’s happened in the last, excuse me, three to four years, there’s been a lot of innovation on how to achieve that quality with the digital platform, right? So we spent the better part of two years testing every manufacturer out there that makes this equipment, putting it through the same test, and we partnered with what we feel is the best, best company out there. And now, after almost two years of having it, it really the proof is in the pudding. So, yeah, the equipment matters, the ink matters. Your process matters, your technology matters. So yeah, people that have had a bad experience before probably got a print on, you know, a tabletop print. Kind of like a mom and pop type thing. And no offense to that, that’s what we started as. But the quality and the consistency can’t be achieved on just your kind of run of the mill type equipment, right, right?
Curt Anderson 15:14
Awesome. And, hey, and by the way, man here, like Damon, here’s a little example of John’s work, right? There you go. Well, I show up one day, and he had this already for me. He’s got it, as a matter of fact, and he had a t shirt for me. And my wife is starting to tell me that Kurt, you got to stop burning that T shirt every day, John, so, but I use this every day, man. So this just looks like the quality that John does. So John, let’s dive into brand promise. You introduced that term to me. And you know what? Dude, I don’t care where you found it. I’m crediting you as the father of that term. You know, let’s, let’s talk about because, like, I’m going to shamelessly, I’m going to steal your thunder. You have another line, like, you’re not selling T shirts, you’re selling memories, right? Talk a little bit about what? Because that can be business, that could be corporate, that could be personal, could be a sporting event, a youth, a sports team, whatever, whatever it could be, share a little bit on the memory side. And then we, I’m going to take a deep dive in, like that brand. Promise,
John LaRoy 16:09
sure. I mean, one of the things that we talk about with new hires here, you know, and you know, this is manufacturing. It’s repetitive, yeah, hard work, right? You gotta get your hands dirty. You can sit here and talk about fluff, but that’s not reality. So we talk about things where it’s the truth. It’s just a different way of looking at things. I remember when I was a freshman, got called up to varsity first. You know, in baseball, you get that varsity Jersey instead of, like, a two button t shirt. Now it’s a fully sewn, yeah, Jersey, and, like, you never forget that feeling. That’s your big deal, right? And now we have a hand in making that memory, right? If you think about the best times you had as a kid or as a parent, as a friend, you know, best concert, best game you were ever at, you could probably close your eyes and visualize and you’ll remember what you’re wearing. And it’s also the feeling like being, I remember being really pissed at my mom throwing away a t shirt or throwing away a hoodie that was just absolutely destroyed. But it’s like, why would you do that? You have no idea what that means. Here. She’s like, it’s disgusting t shirt. What it means to me is in the trash, but it’s like, you attach memories to what you wear. So we have, we have a part. We create memories, not just t shirts. It’s something that we talk about conversely, right, the power of the brand promise. We just had a new customer in yesterday. He’s in the gaming industry. Not sure how it is, where you guys live, but these, whether you like it or not, these little slot machine cafes, right? Every gas station. They’re at every corner, everywhere. And these machines break right, and this guy’s business is to repair these machines and keep these cars and keep these things moving. Well, he’s got a really good business. He’s got a lot of locations, and he got a call from one of his biggest locations and said, Hey, your maintenance guy’s here. But I didn’t know if he was going to rob me or fix the machines, and because he wasn’t wearing apparel, right? You know, it’s like the importance of that your brand message could be good, which is a good thing, but could also be negative. It’s if it’s not cohesive, right? Like people identify, like the stereotype, whether you again, where you stand on it. There’s factual reality. You have microseconds to impress somebody, right? That happens digitally. We’ve talked about this before. You have a digital footprint of what you leave or what you don’t have on your digital space. You gotta, you gotta earn that digital trust with customers now that you didn’t have to before for it’s a phone book and you’re a black lion, a yellow paper now you have this way to impress people or unimpress them and damage your your digital presence and your brand presence. So what your brand says about you without words is very powerful, right? You do what you say and you say what you do. You know, we’ve talked about this before too. Kurt like, if you were going to climb Mount Everest, you wouldn’t wear jeez. Now I’m fumbling it. Who’s the camping brand, right? Make makes the cookware,
Speaker 1 19:06
yeah, like Coleman,
John LaRoy 19:10
even though Coleman makes apparel, yeah, you probably bring the Coleman cooking devices. Yeah, you’d be wearing a Patagonia or North Face jacket, right? Yeah, you’re gonna get the real stuff to do that. That logo tells you that this jacket is going to be quality, and it’s going to be warm, and people have worn it to the top of Everest and back, yeah, now you’re going to, you know, you’re going to go camping that brand Coleman and Yeti. I mean, here’s the thing, like Yeti is one of the best case studies of this, where it’s a cooler. Why is it $350 like for me, if it takes you that long to drink a case of beer and a cooler takes you three weeks, that’s a problem. For three weeks, I just need a cold for the afternoon. But you know, it’s that it says more than just we’re a cooler, we are a lifestyle, right? And we are elite. Dollars, and only the elite have YETI Coolers and stuff. But hey, people buy it, right? And that’s what that brand says. I don’t think anyone’s going to Yeti. And saying like this brand means that it’s bottom of the barrel, bargain type stuff. It doesn’t, you know, and that’s the promise they deliver. If you’re expecting a $350 cooler, yeah, and it better last, yeah, it better be innovative too. So it’s there’s a lot of what goes unsaid. And are you ready? And do you consistently deliver on what that logo means to you and to your customer and also your internal people, right? The promise is just as important to your internal customer as it is to your external customer,
Damon Pistulka 20:39
right? Yeah, right. Exactly, because you see the difference in a workforce when you if you outfit your workforce, let them come to work and whatever, right? And then the next week, you go, Hey, we’ve got work uniforms for you. And they have, you know, nice shirts, nice work shirts to work in there. They’re button up. They’re good. It’s a whole different place, place for them, place for you, place for everyone. When you do that, and when people come to see you, or you have people out in the community with it, it doesn’t even matter if someone’s going for lunch, right? They see that, and it’s a huge thing, because you think about how many automotive replayer places now just have people come to work and whatever they want. I mean, they always have a nice shirt on, matched in and because that makes such a big difference, and it really imparts your brand all the way through the people and the community.
John LaRoy 21:29
Yeah? So true.
Curt Anderson 21:30
Yeah. I, you know, I agree. I actually had a client who’s in the hospital recently, in the past month, I went to visit them, and when I came out of the parking lot, like, there was a the gentleman who was, like, landscaping, mowing the lawn, or whatever, you know, shirt off, you know, raggedy shorts, dotted dot and like it was at a hospital. And I was like, you know, again, not to judge, but it just like, it just seemed like, you know, like, you know, so much pride to wear, like, a nice quality shirt, you know. And even if you’re out in the sun, you know, working like, you know, just the you know, then maybe it’s like a nice lightweight, you know, such and such, right? But you just think that, you know. So anyway, now I’m probably like, so sounding like an old guy,
Damon Pistulka 22:08
but, yeah, well, and John, I know you guys work with these kind of places, but when I was with the baseball club here, let’s see how it’s like baseball club. I mean, we had, you know, you have 250 players in a T in a club like this. Doesn’t matter. Baseball, football, soccer, when they all roll onto a tournament, them, their parents, the coaches, everybody looks sharp in their gear. It is something to see. You know, you go to these big tournaments around the United States. I don’t care what sport it is, the youth tournaments, you see people rolling in, and it’s so cool when they’re branded up. Nice,
John LaRoy 22:43
right? Look. Look Good. Play. Good. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 22:45
yeah, it really does. So
Curt Anderson 22:46
John, let’s go here. So whether it’s the entrepreneur that’s starting from scratch, or, say, the company that’s been in business for years and years and years, and they’ve just like, hey, you know what, I’ve just never thought to, you know, really take this next step or go with a branded apparel, you know, concept, what’s like a good starting point, like, any, any one on one tips, any basics of like, where do I get started?
John LaRoy 23:07
You gotta be happy with your logo, right? You know? I mean, if, if, if, your logo has just been something that you threw together on, just because you had to on a, on a business card, and you’re, you got, you know, a one page website out there. You don’t want to invest money in something that doesn’t truly reflect you. I’m not a graphic designer, but there’s plenty of them out there. And you really want to get your colors. You really want to get something that you know at a very first level, something you’d be proud of, right? Because you don’t want to change it. Kurt, we went through this too, where, you know, you got multiple fronts and again, that digital trust that you must convey if you’re changing logos or it doesn’t look good and it doesn’t jive with your company, you’re you’re confusing the buyer. You’re confusing either your your current customer or a future customer, and it’s just not a cohesive message. So I feel like everyone, I mean, you talk about all the stuff out there. Like, you know, in the 50s, 60s, 70s, eight up to the 90s, right? A company was a name. Now you got Uber Google, you know, like, what are these words, you know, but they’ve turned, they’ve turned into verbs, yeah, but it’s just, you know, to be and, like, What the hell is that? But an infant knows what it means now, you know, like, YouTube and all this type of stuff. So it’s important that whatever the name of the company is is something you know, because it’s easy to go get a DBA if you don’t like it, whatever, make sure your name is recognizable. Make sure your logo is recognizable. And then also make sure, if you’re looking to merchandise it, it prints Well, right? Because if you got a logo with a ton of text in there. You’re trying to embroider that on a t shirt or a polo or a jacket. We run into this a lot with law firms, right? You got 13 partners on there, and you want
Damon Pistulka 24:52
to get Dave,
John LaRoy 24:53
yeah, just put a QR code. You know? It’s like, we got to make sure it’s going to. Translate well to because whatever prints on paper doesn’t always print well on apparel. It’s a different medium. So those are, those are two things I’d start with, if you have that and you’re ready to go, you want to make sure whatever you get someone if you’re going to sell it, or if you’re going to, you know first start with your team that they’re going to wear it, right? You know, what the founder might like, may not be what people on the floor or your sales team like. So get get some opinion. Get some samples in, try it on, because a Nike will fit different than a lulu, and Lulu is going to fit different than a Gildan, you know, everything, even though it’s a medium. Is it athletic cut? Is it this? If you’re going to spend money on high quality type stuff, make sure that the people you’re buying for are going to wear it. So get buy in. You know, it doesn’t have to be 100 samples, but maybe it will send you three or four try them on. Do you like the color? Do you like the fit? Because no one wants to be sandwiched into like, an athletic cut that doesn’t have an athletic body. And now you’re, you know, yeah, you don’t feel comfortable wearing that and you’re ever going to wear it. So that’s, that’s probably step two in the process, and then step three is make the ordering process easy, right? We can set up an online store for you. That’s what we do for a lot of corporations, whether it’s a 24/7 365, what we call an evergreen store that’s always open, or it’s called a pop up shop where, hey, it’s open for two weeks, it will close, and then at that point we we ship out the garments, and you know, open it again. Usually quarterly, is what we do for other companies. But yeah, that old, like, the old way of, kind of, like, Hey, Jimmy, you want a medium? Yeah, you write a piece of paper bar. But, yeah, you know, like, you get this mess of sticky notes that goes here. This is what I want. Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass. So, like, the online platform takes away all that.
Curt Anderson 26:42
Yeah, right. Yeah, what I want to I want to earn it on that for a second. You’re, you know again, talk about the brand promise. So, you know what? As a matter of fact, I’m going to pull up your website in a second here. So John, you’ve made a commitment to technology, as you’re saying, like the Shopify store. We’re going to talk about nomos. Like for as an entrepreneur, what did it take for you to make that commitment? Because that’s part of your brand. Promise is like, Hey, I’m going to institute this technology. It’s not a cheap, you know, it’s not inexpensive to go this route. Talk a little bit like, what was it to you to make a commitment to technology, to make your customer make that easy, the buying process easier? Well,
John LaRoy 27:19
first, I mean, I’m not going to lie, I was selfishly motivated, like I was just banging my head against the wall, that there’s got to be a better way to do this. You know, this, this software project got looking at the calendar in the bottom right now is 10 years old. We’ve been doing this for 10 years, where we started this idea of creating a software one, just because I thought it was supremely unprofessional when a customer would call a check on an order, you’d literally be rifling through a stack of papers, and the customer could be on hold for 20 minutes until we said, hey, it’s ready, or it’ll be due tomorrow. And I just knew if I we ever wanted to scale and be larger than just, you know, backyard printer for some police and fire stations, we gotta do something different. My dad’s been in corporate sales for 40 years, and he was specifically selling software. And I remember as a kid traveling to sales meetings and hearing software but not knowing what the hell that meant. You know, selling for Oracle, some micro systems, Java, all these things that he knew nothing about. He could just sell it, right? And then I was talking to a couple of technical guys. I’m like, what does it mean to make software? Because I think that’s what I need. He’s like, Well, sketch it out. And, you know, fortunately, my cousin owns a software architecture and design company in Indianapolis. We started with him. We architected the look. And, you know, after hundreds of iterations, and we continue to iterate. We have weekly development calls. We’re at a really, really nice product that our customers interact with, our floor interacts with, we track, we integrate, we we do a lot, and we really couldn’t be where we’re at without it. And where we want to go is possible now because of it. Yeah, that’s so cool. Yeah.
Curt Anderson 29:00
Oh, that’s fantastic. So alright, let’s take, let’s take a little gander. Can you guys see my screen here?
Damon Pistulka 29:05
Yeah, yeah. And I love that image too. I love this video.
Curt Anderson 29:09
So John, what are we looking at right here? So that is the
John LaRoy 29:12
rock now, what we call our direct to garment machine. That’s the machine I was talking about. We went around the United States and literally, the world to test the technology that would have that print stand up against screen print, or next to screen print, so that the printing process is real quick. It’s a digital print on a cotton t shirt. It goes around in a circle, it comes back, and then it’s got to go through the dryers, you see right there. So there’s actually a chemical reaction that fuses the ink to the shirt when it goes to that oven.
Curt Anderson 29:43
Damon, I think you need a grit that mustache. I think you
Damon Pistulka 29:46
need to get the handlebar. They need to get one like that. Yeah, what
Curt Anderson 29:49
do you think I dude, I think I can’t pull it off, but I think you could. So let’s give her a try. Alright, so John, let’s, let’s check out this. Now you also are. Look at this dude like you’re. Doing all sorts of interviews. What are you doing here now
John LaRoy 30:04
with the interview season series, yeah, yeah. We’ve interviewed clients, current clients, potential clients. We’ve interviewed vendor partners. We’ve interviewed who friends, you know, friends that are customers. But yeah, in this, in this series, I guess, or what we’re calling, it’s not totally branded thread TV yet, but we’re just talking with clients and sharing their stories and their unique business and how branded apparel helps them, either, you know, get their message out, sell more merch, or convey their band promise. I mean, essentially, it’s a lot of people, you know, in the industry, like Jason Reinhardt, for example. You know, he founded a company called Brickle, massive print on demand company, who’s turned me on to vectify and Flores. And we’ve, we’ve had, I just actually got off a call with him before this call, and things are going well, you know? So, yeah, it’s, it’s great. I mean, Kurt really pushed me to do this. This is part of our marketing journey, to get out there and start putting content out. And this is, this is the product of Kurt and Damon kicking my ass. Get out there and do
Curt Anderson 31:19
it well, I’ll tell you. And the thing is, the Inspire, like, each, every single one of these guys, you know, like, yeah, you know, Brian over here stories, Brian shares a story. Like, started in like, pure poverty and, like, built the largest moving company in the city of Chicago, yeah, you know, come over here. Matt, like, just on a, almost on a whim, right? John, like, started a a kombucha company, and is just absolutely exploding. He’s a big rugby player. And just, you know, each of these guys, you know, Brody here is, is building out a software company. Yeah. Betsy is just a, just a force of nature, just an incredible, very inspiring. But John, just, I mean, dude, like the people that you run with, just great conversations, wonderful entrepreneurial stories and just, man, it’s like a coaching lesson every time we ride a call with
John LaRoy 32:10
these people, right? It’s great, good stuff. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 32:12
do you enjoy it more than you thought you would after you’re doing it?
John LaRoy 32:18
100% Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, I think it’s the host, it’s all the host.
Curt Anderson 32:25
You’re all right, you’re way too kind. So anyway, so Alright, guys, what I what I’d love for everybody to do, stop by a pair of redefined website. You’ve got all sorts of information, tons of value here. We’re talking about print on demand. And John, you did a great job. I’m going to stop sharing you get did a great job, kind of running through the 101, what’s from an entrepreneurial stand? Let’s talk to the entrepreneurs. Okay? And not, you know, we’re not throwing anybody under the bus. We you know, we make, we make, I’ll make mistakes. I made probably 100 before nine o’clock this morning. What are some of the mistakes that you see with your clients, that your customers, that you just would wish, like, Man, I just wish there’s way I could get people to help avoid any particular mistakes or things. Like, in your industry, what is there, a real common one that you just see over and over and over, like,
John LaRoy 33:15
are you talking about my customers? Or, yeah,
Curt Anderson 33:18
yeah. More on a customer side, like, as an expert in apparel, as an expert, you know, with branding. Is there one, I know you’ve mentioned a few things in the call, but is there one particular one that you just see over and over and over and you’re just like, Man, I just wish my clients or customers would we could, like, get this one put behind us. Is there anyone that stands out above the the others
John LaRoy 33:38
waiting to the last minute? Wait? It
Curt Anderson 33:42
waiting to the last Yeah, right. No, nobody, nobody. Nobody calls you and says, I need this yesterday. Do they that doesn’t happen
John LaRoy 33:48
your in your business, does it? Yeah, I’m guilty of it. I mean, you know, I we know we have the Fourth of July party every year right before the Fourth of July, and then it’s the day before the party. I’m like, crap. I forgot to make my T shirts. But yeah, so yeah, guys, my guys on the floor don’t like that. But anyhow, more than just the timeliness of it, design work, you know, I feel like everyone, but again, now with the tools that are out there, you really do have the opportunity and ability to come in with something that’s not scratched on the back of a napkin, not in thinking, thinking that, because you’ve had it printed on letterhead for 25 years, and now you want to start doing a polo or a t shirt or something that that will translate, and then just the inaction right where It’s like, Hey, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone would wear this, right? You know, I I’ve never done it before, and it’s not important. And it’s just kind of that stodgy mentality that I had about marketing, to get out of my own head and get out of my own way, right? Because you can either lead it, you. Do it or resist it. And if you’re going to resist it, you’re going to be left behind. Because, yeah, if you’re, if you’re the, if you’re the company that’s not providing branded apparel for your own employees, that’s, it’s pretty rare. And I would say it’s, it’s not good. Mm, hmm. I mean, especially, like we’re talking about banks, even the bankers you walk in and do your deposits on Friday or whatever, like, they’re not in suit and ties anymore. They’re in a polo and a quarter zip and Yeah, usually with the chase logo or right the bank you’re at on it, you know?
Damon Pistulka 35:33
Yeah, yep. So
Curt Anderson 35:35
Alright, moving forward, as we’ll start winding down, I know I could keep you here all day. What are some things that you’re super excited that you have going on. You have a phenomenal you have the Ferrari that we talk about, the rock. You’ve got state of the art equipment. You’ve got an amazing, incredible team. You’ve been stepping up your marketing. You’ve been like, aligning with other subject matter experts. So like, really take your company to the next level, building a new build, building a new facility this year, which is just incredibly exciting. What are some things that you’re excited about moving forward, for the future? At apparel redefined, you need more? Yeah,
John LaRoy 36:12
I’m barely going to sleep anyways. No, yeah, I’m excited to take the company the next level, right? You know, we’ve had, we had a couple setbacks that you’re aware of, you know, over the past year. And it’s part of the process, right? And you gotta, you gotta, yeah, Revere, and get through it. And part of that is getting to that point I feel like that a lot of manufacturing companies get to, is that the winds of organic growth eventually stop or slow, and that year over year, double digit growth that you’ve been experiencing for maybe double digit years or whatever eventually starts to slow, and we do a very bad job of talking about what we do. I’ll never forget my grandpa was in sales and I was coming out of college. He’s like, You got your resume? I’m like, yeah. He’s like, send it to I put it in every mailbox in the world. He’s like, let everyone know what you’re doing. And, like, he had a real big, like, marketing mindset, you know, as you know, at the time in the early 2000s and he was, you know, 80 something years old. It is, it is something you gotta do if you don’t, if people don’t know what you do and who you are, and it still bewilders me now, like, when people say, Well, I didn’t know you could do hoodies. And it’s like, you think, like, hey, we could do t shirts. You could also do hoodies. Like, but I guess if you buy a microwave from LG Oh, I didn’t know you make refrigerators too. You know, it’s like, yeah, it’s our fault that we didn’t communicate that, yeah, for not knowing it. So I’m excited to actually start doing that and eventually doing it well. We’re still in that bumps, you know, and learning from don’t do this and don’t do that, but we’re getting better at it, and I feel like teaching myself and my sales team. Like the sales that we have now is the 99 9.9% closer, right? Like it’s all, Hey, I’ve already got it and it’s coming to you, and just handle it. But now with email marketing outreach campaign, we’re getting a lot of good traction and testing that on smaller markets, perfecting it, getting your practice cuts in there before you step up to the plate and going after those right? It’s something we’ve never done, and I’m really excited about it, because I could see it working and eventually, you know, kind of re kick starting that growth that we had for a while, but in a whole new atmosphere, because a lot of people that come visit our shop, like Curt, and we’ve had other people from the industry, and they’re, like, blown away, like you’re here without any marketing, like there’s other companies that have done this, but they’ve literally purchased every customer they’ve ever had, and we haven’t. So it’s exciting to you know, get this wheel moving, but a higher RPM, right? Very cool. Absolutely
Curt Anderson 39:00
love it, man, dude, such an expression. Now you have two young men in your life. Yeah, young boys. Is it Vinny and Tommy? Vinny Tom, yeah, yeah, Vinny and Tommy. Okay, Vinnie and Tommy. If you were, let’s say, let’s fast forward a few years. Would you want them to a go to entrepreneurship? B, no,
John LaRoy 39:18
oh, yeah, definitely. Go in, go all in
Curt Anderson 39:22
an entrepreneurship. What advice would you give to Tommy and Vinnie is they were young entrepreneurs coming out of college. I assume that they’re going to go to John Carroll, just like you got my daughter going. But what what advice would you give to to Vinnie and Tommy coming out of college, if they were kicking off their entrepreneur career? What advice would you have?
John LaRoy 39:44
There’s a lot, but one
Speaker 1 39:48
fire off a couple. I
John LaRoy 39:49
mean, like, just last night, Vinnie. Vinnie is a five year old getting his butt kicked by a nine year old on the ice and comes off crying. It’s like, I’m like, Hey, not everyone’s going to be your friend. Yeah, yep. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 40:00
that’s a good one. There’s a t shirt right there. Not everyone’s going to be your friend five year
John LaRoy 40:05
old. He’s a really nice, innocent kid. Yeah, let’s go up and say hi everyone. And not everyone wants to say hi, but, you know, teaching would be tough, but also polite. But I think for me, it’s that if you’re going to work hard, and my boys will work hard if they want to live under our roof. It’s easy to work as hard as you can, as long as you can, if it’s for yourself. You know you’d rather put all in this time and this effort and do it knowing that you’re building something and going to fail, but you can be proud of it and know that you’ve done it for the right reason, because. And really, where it hits home for me is like, again, seeing my dad right in corporate sales and just being moved from company to company to company to company. And, you know, outsell the quota next year. The quota is 10x it’s like, on it, yeah, right. So it’s like you can only control so much in an atmosphere, even though you kick ass, but like in this situation, you can control your own destiny to some extent, you know, but it’s all it’s all a direct reflection of how hard you work and what you’re willing to put in. And again, it’s that kind of competitive, athletic mindset too, where growing up not being the tallest, you have that chip on your shoulder where it’s like, everyone’s looking at potential, and that kid’s six two, and he’s going to have more potential than a guy that’s five six. And I’ve always wanted to take that out of the of the equation and be like, doesn’t matter how tall you are here. I mean, I’m not, I’m not repping basketball training here. You know, you know. I mean, yeah, but yeah. So again, it’s find something that you can control your own destiny in, and then don’t ever look back. Yeah.
Curt Anderson 41:50
Absolutely love it. Not, not everyone’s going to be your friend. Control your own destiny. Damon, your thoughts, comments for our friend John Leroy, with this amazing conversation, which is
Damon Pistulka 42:00
awesome, being able to talk to me this morning, John, and just hear how you are changing the print on demand branding for companies to allow them to really change the experience everyone has that interacts with them with the product you’re creating. Yeah, yeah.
Curt Anderson 42:19
Awesome stuff. So John, we’re going to wind down parting thoughts, words of wisdom, anything that you want to share as we close out.
John LaRoy 42:25
No, I am, I am really excited. You know, we’ve been talking about Vistage shameless plug here, but I attended my first meeting on Tuesday, and I’m that’s, that’s something I’m actually really excited for. I mean, sitting at this meeting, or 17 business owners, or C suite people, and the guy sitting next to me, billion dollar company, owner of a billion dollar company, and just being able to, like, hear, hey, you know what? These guys have problems too. Yeah, yeah. Outside the industry, outside of our, you know, echo chamber. It’s nice to see. And, you know, kind of again, leveling up the company is it means leveling up myself, right? And taking, taking, taking the risk to step into a situation where you’re going to be depends. I mean, we watch, we watch the whole thing go through. And one of the one of the members, made a presentation. And you know it’s, it’s, it’s constructive criticism, and you know it’s, it’s coaching. And if you’re willing to be coached, and you want to be coached, you’ll get something out of it. And yeah, I’m looking forward to that, because if you’re not growing, you’re dying. And it’s time for me to level up, and I’m excited to do so,
Curt Anderson 43:41
how to be rubbing elbows with a guy running, you know, somebody running a billion dollar car? Yeah, yeah. What a what a gift that is. So alright, we’re going to wind down. We’re going to close this out. So first off, John, thank you. Thank you for your friendship. Words. I don’t have the words to share for my respect, my admiration. I just like, Dude, I worship the ground that you walk on. We are you guys, like the two presidents of your fan clubs. I just, we want you to just be a monster, monster success. And it’s just a privilege for us to have a front row seat to be a part of your journey. And we just wish you, your family, nothing but the absolute best. Can’t wait to come back on. I think Damon, next time when you come back on, John should like he’s ringing the bell on NASDAQ, you know, like, there we go, his IPO, right. There we go, John, hang out with us for one minute, man and I again. Thank you, brother. We love you. Appreciate you. And as busy as you are, it means a ton for you to take time on your busy schedule, guys, have an amazing, incredible week, and do us a favor. Just be an inspiration, like our dear friend John and you too can make the world a better place. Damon, why don’t you close us out? All
Damon Pistulka 44:52
right? Well, thanks everyone for being with us today. I can see we got the listeners out there on the different channels, and appreciate you every week and coming. Stopping to spending your time with us, stopping by and listening what we have to say. If you miss something and you got into this late go back and listen to what John was saying. Great stuff about the print on demand industry, great stuff that’ll just inspire you and really help you move forward in your entrepreneurial efforts, or just thinking about how you want to show up with your brand better and branded apparel and other products. Thanks so much everyone for being here with us this week. We’ll be back again next week. We’re out for now. Have a great weekend. Bye.
