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S3 Summer edition Jack Nelson
16 Plays25 days ago
In this episode of Dial It In, Trygve Olsen and Dave Meyer have a conversation with Jack Nelson, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Foam Industries. Jack shares insights into the family business, started by his parents, and discusses topics such as business challenges, growth strategies, and the importance of maintaining core values. He highlights the evolution of the company, from its grassroots beginnings to handling large-scale projects, including making foam strips for face shields during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jack also talks about the dynamics of working with family, the importance of employee trust, and their recent venture into creating foam party decor. Additionally, he touches on the value of documented processes and his personal hobby of etching guitar pedals.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to dial it in a podcast where we talk to fascinating people about marketing sales process improvements and tricks that they use to grow their businesses. Join me Dave Meyer and Trigby Olson of busy web as we bring you interviews on how the best in their fields are dialing it in their organizations.
00:00:26
Speaker
Let's ring up another episode.
Summer S'mores Edition and Favorite Episodes
00:00:30
Speaker
Welcome to Summer S'mores edition of Dial It In. This is our summer recap of all of our favorite episodes as nominated by our internal production staff. Danielle nominated Jack Nelson today and she says, Gah, I love Jack. He's such a funny, well-intentioned guy.
00:00:48
Speaker
From sporting a cheetah print jacket to his random clips and foam insights, the episode was a wild ride. I certainly wasn't expected to go from laughing to nearly crying while listening to it, but alas, it was a roller coaster.
Nomination of Jack Nelson's Episode
00:01:00
Speaker
Mid-episode, I sent a chat to my coworker telling her that she should listen to the episode because it was hilarious. Then immediately after I sent that message, it took a little bit of a turn and I had to backtrack slightly so she didn't get the wrong impression. and While discussing foam doesn't sound like the most scintillating subject in the world, Jack knows his stuff and he talks about it with such passion.
00:01:20
Speaker
you can't get You can't help but get excited too. Enjoy, Jack Nelson, and we'll see you next week. So once again, I'm here by myself for today's episode of dial it in. Cause Dave is on vacation.
00:01:33
Speaker
I'd love to make some Cheech and Chong jokes about Dave's not here, but I've found that the older I get, the more people don't understand who Cheech or Chong is. And they think Cheech was somebody that was on a VH1 special.
00:01:47
Speaker
I'm just going to skip over the comedy today and say that I'm really excited to have our guest on because he's actually a listener of the show. And when I met with him for lunch a couple of months ago, he started quoting things that I said on the podcast and I had no idea what he was talking about until he reminded me. So.
00:02:05
Speaker
It's a nice circle of life for me today, but before we get to our guest, today's episode of dial it in is brought to you by we fix hubspot.com. Is your hubspot portal cluttered and inefficient? We fix hubspot powered by busy web specializes in customizing and optimizing your hubspot experience.
00:02:23
Speaker
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00:02:35
Speaker
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Interview with Jack Nelson: Family Business Insights
00:02:46
Speaker
our guest today is not only a client, but he's also a friend, Jack Nelson from Foam Industries. Jack isn't just selling foam. He's shaping the future of a family business.
00:02:59
Speaker
As vice president of sales and marketing at Foam Industries, he's expanding the company's reach while navigating the challenges of succession and growth. Having grown up watching his parents lead the business, Jack blends tradition with transformation, bringing fresh ideas to an evolving industry.
00:03:16
Speaker
Now, as he steps into greater leadership, he's tackling the complexities of family business, innovation, and legacy. Welcome to the show, Jack. Thank you very much. ear I'm super excited that you're actually a listener and you're going to be a guest on the same time. This will be weird for you when the episode comes out.
00:03:35
Speaker
like the hair club for men. Not only am i the president, I'm also a client. I feel like there's a joke there as we get older, but okay. I know all about Foam Industries. Tell us where do you work and what do you do?
00:03:49
Speaker
ah The company that I work for is Foam Industries. What do I do?
00:03:56
Speaker
Officially, I am the vice president of sales and marketing at Foam Industries, but my folks started the business. They are the sole two owners, and my sister and I are coming to the age where we are going to start taking over ownership of the company.
00:04:13
Speaker
So does that mean you basically do everything and mom and dad aren't in, or how often are mom and dad in running the company versus how often are you in running My dad does not do a lot of the day-to-day processing of things. He's still available for customer communications, that type of stuff, but he's got the best job where he gets to do all the fun sales stuff, but doesn't have to do any of the reporting or the icky stuff.
00:04:43
Speaker
Oh God, that sounds great. Where do I sign up for that? Yep. Yeah. That's how I'm going to retire too. Yeah. yeah Unfortunately, my son is 10 came down to my office a couple weeks ago and he looked at everything that I had going on. He's dad.
00:04:59
Speaker
I don't have any idea what any of this is, but it sure looks like you're doing a good job. That's all it takes. Sometimes I said, thanks man, but I'm still not taking dairy. And then he's fine. And then he went back upstairs.
00:05:11
Speaker
Sure. So. I'll bring it back to the beginning a little bit. My folks were in their mid 40s. ah My dad had a job at another place and he didn't like the new management, the way things were going. There's a lot of restructuring in the company.
00:05:28
Speaker
He just wasn't happy there. At that time, my mom's brother passed away at 41 from a heart attack. And then a couple months later, my mom's sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.
00:05:43
Speaker
And my mom was a stay-at-home mom. I was
00:05:50
Speaker
probably 14 or 15 at this time, and my sister was, she's five years younger than me, so she was nine or 10. My mom said to my dad, you only get to go around once.
00:06:02
Speaker
If you don't like your job, quit. So that's what he did. This is April of 2001. So then he talked with the company that he was released from his non-compete.
00:06:15
Speaker
He said what he was intending to do.
00:06:19
Speaker
And then he started buying equipment and then We would have ah my aunt who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the time. She would come in, help out my grandpa. We would all be there. There's a picture of me and my sister scrubbing the floor of the warehouse. My sister was in her dance uniform and i don't know what I was wearing, but.
00:06:42
Speaker
Were you all for wearing a dance uniform? I should have been. Yeah. We were just a very grassroots movement with my family trying to get some things started and then My mom was interviewing our first employee on September 11th at 9 a.m. m Central Time.
00:07:03
Speaker
So as they're doing the interview, they're like, oh, did you hear about that plane that hit the World Trade Center? Wow. So then, you know, things progressed and then the economy shut down for a little bit. And we're like, what are we going to do?
00:07:19
Speaker
And my dad and mom were like, we got nowhere to go but up because we literally have nothing. So let's just keep pushing forward. And things turned around in a little bit and then we started getting more orders and I buy a little bit more equipment and my dad had very good
Adaptation During COVID: Foam Industries' Pivot
00:07:38
Speaker
connections in the industry.
00:07:40
Speaker
Everybody likes my dad. So we've got this extra equipment. We'll sell it to you. If you don't have the cash now, like we'll figure it out later. It's, You know, it's not like we're selling our number one machine. This is the old one that's been in the corner for three years and hasn't touched.
00:07:56
Speaker
I think it still turns on. We'll give you a great deal on it. Yeah. So that was how we got started. And then we've had several different locations, acquired some smaller operations, and that has allowed us to grow.
00:08:10
Speaker
And then we'll fast forward to 2020. were...
00:08:14
Speaker
we're We're still considered a small company. And then in 2020, COVID happened. So we were able to, or we were actually tasked with making four and a half million strips of foam for face shields.
00:08:29
Speaker
The nice thing about being a small company is it allowed us to be very nimble. Let's pause a second. The narrative is fascinating and I'm really enjoying listening you tell it, but I think we missed one really important thing is what exactly does foam industries do?
00:08:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Great question. we Foam, wooden, plastic for custom packaging. Got it. Okay. So foam, wooden, plastic for custom packaging. So then all of a sudden you were making face foam inserts for face shields.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yep. Just the foam strip that goes on your forehead. All right. Thank you. Keep going. once So that was a huge surge in business for us. And up until that point, we were what I would consider to be a high mix, low volume. So Andy's going to need 50 of this widget.
00:09:18
Speaker
Trigby's going to need 200 of this widget. Now, business has completely died, except for we're making only one thing, and we're making a lot of them.
00:09:31
Speaker
I want to pause there because I understand why that's a problem, but I don't know that everybody else does. So explain why that's not good. ah We have a large breadth of machinery um for different types of cutting, different types of materials, different applications.
00:09:49
Speaker
so while So we're able to work on multiple projects simultaneously. But where once COVID happened,
00:09:59
Speaker
that was We were able to supplement a little bit, but it wasn't the most efficient for production. So when you when somebody comes to you and says, hey, can you make this thing for me?
00:10:11
Speaker
Answers generally, yes, but in order to do that, you have to figure out how to make, right? So you've got to build out a mold. You've got to figure out the cutting structure. You've got to figure out the whole process to get the end results.
00:10:26
Speaker
And so just having somebody say, can you make me one thing isn't as helpful as can you make me a thousand things? Yeah. The answer is probably yes. We have the technology to make pretty much anything you can think of.
00:10:43
Speaker
However, depending on how many you need, how quickly you need them, what type of material and and any other parameters you have is going to determine how we make that for you.
00:10:55
Speaker
Got it. So ultimately though, the having people call you and say, I need this one thing, that's not as helpful from a business standpoint. It's not as helpful as you think.
00:11:06
Speaker
Not necessarily.
00:11:09
Speaker
Got it. Okay. Let's get back to your narrative. So COVID's here. You're making one-offs as well as you'd like. Keep going. So then we were able to, i learned from my folks.
00:11:21
Speaker
It's always good to have a lot of friends. So we were able to partner with a lot of other companies that were able to help us but fulfill our customers' needs. That allowed us with a pivot in our strategy where we heavily invested into new equipment to handle large volume orders. And since then, but we've seen a lot of growth over the last five years.
00:11:45
Speaker
Cool. Excellent. Let's talk
Innovative Packaging and Customer Experiences
00:11:48
Speaker
a little bit about the machines. Cause I got to tour your factory and i was like a kid in a candy store. It was three, four access machines. You have the cool table saw that you can put your hand in and it won't cut it.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yep. What else you got? So we actually have what's called a five axis water jet cutter. So if you're on YouTube, you can imagine a water jet just comes like this back and forth to cut a square or a circle.
00:12:14
Speaker
yeah Then it can also angle itself and then rotate around. So you can cut like an ice cream cone shaped or a kahedron. If you want to make a set of d and d dice, 12 sided die.
00:12:29
Speaker
your' twelve sided die But the most common application would be if we're making like a tray for something and you want an angled cavity. Okay. Okay. And yeah, so for those people who don't know that there's a table saw manufacturer called SawStop where it has sensors built in that if flesh gets near the blade, I think it's one or two millimeters near the blade, it will shut the entire machine immediately.
00:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, and it actually, it uses electrical conductivity to test when it's in contact with flesh. So if you are using like a piece of wet wood, that can also be problematic.
00:13:12
Speaker
Nice. And the YouTube videos are astounding because you can you can watch them put hot dogs, try cut hot dogs with the saw. And it won't work. The whole shot saw, oh my Rounding back up, you can make anything you want out of foam. You can cut out anything you want from.
00:13:30
Speaker
What's the most useful application that you've found for this? Cause I know you tried, you said it meant the magic word, which is packaging. So that means that you can put anybody's products in a box.
00:13:46
Speaker
Yep. So if you are making a product or shipping a product, I can make sure it's going to get there undamaged.
00:13:57
Speaker
I just bought a ridiculous chair. And it's ridiculous. It's a gaming chair. It's a big, fancy highfalutin gaming chair.
00:14:09
Speaker
And I feel a little of ridiculous sitting because it looks like I'm Princess Leia because I have the head rest, the little black thing. But what was amazing to me is I got this big giant box and I was like, oh, whatever. I put a chair together. It's not the end of the world. And it took me 35 minutes to get everything in the box.
00:14:27
Speaker
Because everything had its own presentation and there was a whole unboxing experience. And so not only did my chair get here, save all the components got here, I had an experience pulling the thing out basically.
00:14:41
Speaker
And even as as I was fighting to get all the wheels out, and was like, I bet somewhere Jack Nelson put all these in a box and sent Adam sent to me. That's in our sales and design process. That's one of the questions we ask.
00:14:55
Speaker
what is the What is the goal of your packaging? or what are you Rank these things in priority. Do you want it to be the least expensive?
00:15:07
Speaker
Do you want it to go through our plant the fastest, which usually those things are pretty close to the same? But also, do you want your customers... How do you want them to experience it? Do you want everything just jammed into the smallest package possible and then they got to take everything apart, put it all together?
00:15:27
Speaker
or do these six pieces go together, which may yield a slightly larger package, but it's going to make your customer experience so much better because they don't have to dig through everything before they find step one in the assembly process.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, and even that was one of the things that I was amazed of is the first step was basically pull the back out. But they were like, no, lay down the back cover on the floor and then pull it out put the back cover on the floor so that you don't bruise the chair and in some way.
00:15:58
Speaker
Just rolled my eyes. but But the more I did it, the more it's like, oh, okay, the more I feel validated about my purchase because it was... not inexpensive, but in doing that and taking the care out of the packaging, then i was able to feel validated about my purchaser. Interestingly enough, we have a customer who does a lot of industrial metal parts.
00:16:23
Speaker
So we've made Every once a while, we'll just, we'll come up with some new ideas and whatnot. So we had, it used to be, we just needed to be the cheapest, the smallest thing. And then one one project was a pretty low runner. We decided, let's just try to make this look really cool.
00:16:44
Speaker
So we had this. the big metal plate on top and then they had all these accessories and it just cascaded underneath and it almost looked like a a galaxy print with all these little screws and little hardware cutouts.
00:16:57
Speaker
Yeah, nice. is a cu The customer got in there like, this is freaking sweet. And we've been making parts like that ever since. Oh, wonderful.
00:17:08
Speaker
ah That sort of leads into my next question because I think people don't necessarily have an appreciation for your creativity. You think, oh, it's packaging. It's the packaging industry. It's boxes. It's putting stuff in boxes.
00:17:23
Speaker
So what are some of the more creative applications that people have asked for you guys to come up with and figure out?
Diverse Foam Applications
00:17:31
Speaker
It was funny because whenever you asked that question, I can't think of anything. So I was talking about this with the team in preparation for this, because we've definitely done some interesting things once Colorado legalized various products.
00:17:48
Speaker
We started doing a lot of large, extremely large glass packaging pieces. You're talking about vases, right? For tobacco use. For tobacco use.
00:18:01
Speaker
We've also done life-size reproductive system models for male and female for surgeons to practice on and also for...
00:18:13
Speaker
displays and cutaways of for doctors to use for training. If you've ever been to a twins game during the seventh inning stretch, they'll throw three dices off the truly deck.
00:18:24
Speaker
Guess who made those? Wow. but We've done cases for the world cup trophy. Really? And then another thing that is maybe we, most of our packaging is never seen by what I'm going to call a normal person.
00:18:44
Speaker
But if you've ever seen weather balloons, we make insulation kits that shield the hot air from escaping in the control center of it.
00:18:56
Speaker
Let's roll back one. You made the case that the World Cup trophy comes in? Yep. That's actually more common than you'd think. Like all of the Stanley Cups or the Stanley Cup is one, but storage for these trophies, you don't just put them on your mantle.
00:19:15
Speaker
It's like in cases and that case is then in another case when it's transferred. So how did they send you the World Cup trophy? And then I put this in a box?
00:19:29
Speaker
Nope. We got the step file, the 3D model of it. Okay. All right. Yeah. We would have all been out there with our getting pictures and self. Yeah. Cause I was thinking, man, if we can get the Stanley cup to come to your office, then I'm coming, I'm coming up. You're about an hour and a half away from me, but I don't care. Oh, come on.
00:19:47
Speaker
that's That's awesome. I'll even meet the guy that the Stanley Cup transports. So this one simple thing ends up turning into really all sorts of different styles of things. And we're just talking about foam.
00:20:00
Speaker
How does this manifest itself other things like wood or metal? With wood, we do a lot of creating for medical devices and like for dialysis.
00:20:13
Speaker
ah Usually those types of Those, those i'm going to call them stores or locations, they may be in like a strip mall or they may be in a hospital.
00:20:25
Speaker
But it's the same machine going to each place. The requirements for some of those things is it has to be unloaded by any person. One person has to be able to unload it. It's not a technician.
00:20:37
Speaker
It's not a bodybuilder. Any person. So we need to design it in such a way where...
00:20:45
Speaker
I believe the requirement is like the person has to lift 30 pounds. So they have to be able to take the top off the box, unwrap the corrugated, drop the ramp, and be able to roll this unit off. And it also has to fit through a door that's 32 inches wide because if it's going in the back office of in a strip mall, they're not they don't have the budget to take walls down to fit this water processing unit.
00:21:10
Speaker
Wow. That's amazing. So... Back to the narrative of the company. I'm sorry if I'm jumping around. What made you decide you want to go work for your dad?
Family Dynamics in Business
00:21:25
Speaker
I have, my mom was a stay at home mom for most of my life that I can remember. My dad has always sold foam in my memories of him.
00:21:36
Speaker
And I always wanted to be just like him growing up. So I never quite understood how he could sell
00:21:43
Speaker
foam and I would ask so do you guys make the foam he said nope we just cut it into shapes and I could just never quite grasp what that meant until I did it myself okay my worst day I wouldn't want to work with my phone Cause we're, we're too much. I wouldn't want to work with my son either. Cause we're too much alike. We're too similar.
00:22:08
Speaker
And I find that it's an question that I hitch on a lot, especially like when you work with somebody you love. The only reason why I've been married for as long as I have is that at seven in the morning, my wife gets away from me for enough hours.
00:22:20
Speaker
So how do you, how does that work where you, Especially at the end of the day, if you have a genuine disagreement and then you go like, oh, F you. And now your mother is expecting you for dinner at six.
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah. Great question. We, my sister, my mom, my dad, and myself, we don't have,
00:22:44
Speaker
or at least we don't think we have very strong egos. We understand it's okay to have disagreements. My mother and I can have ah some more passionate disagreements. But also, we still have to get together for Christmas, so we are able to, I don't want to say separate it, but we don't always have to talk at work. And since we see each other every day, it's we don't need to get all of our feelings out the few times we see each other a year. Because a lot of my peers live in a different state than their folks, so they see them.
00:23:21
Speaker
maybe twice or three times a year where you know they need to bring the grandkids and they have to do all these things together where I see them every day. So it's, hey, I got stuff going on. I'll catch up with you later.
00:23:36
Speaker
No problem. what are So what are some of the advantages of working with family? that is That's the best.
00:23:47
Speaker
My family, we have a very unique relationship where we have ah an extremely high level of trust with each other. But we have all earned that trust from each other.
00:23:59
Speaker
ah That's not to say we haven't made mistakes, but we all work together and we all back each other up when needed. Wow. And we're also there for each other if I don't know everything. So I will reach out to my mom, dad, sister, and I will piggyback off them. If I just need help with something, they'll help get me unstuck.
00:24:19
Speaker
And they may even tell me something that I dislike, but you know what? It puts a different perspective on how I was looking at the problem. So that might that alone sometimes helps.
00:24:30
Speaker
Okay. One of the things that I've always respected about is... I find that a lot of second generation business leaders aren't as invested in the business as their parents. And they want, when they get in, they want to change everything.
00:24:48
Speaker
what They're going to make it their own, but it sounds like you want to continue the family legacy because you've helped build it. I'm going to give you two different answers and they're the same. Okay.
00:25:02
Speaker
The trust that we've built within our family, that kind of extrapolates out to our customers. The goal is to cut foam and get what our customers want.
00:25:12
Speaker
So in that respect, I'm not changing anything. we're We are trying to be like Avis. We're going to try harder than everybody else. We can't afford to have ah half empty tank a gas in your rental car. Like we just got to, we just got to do the best we can to make sure everybody gets the best experience possible.
00:25:34
Speaker
But also the way of doing things and the rules that have been in place. um I like to obey the rules, but I'm also not going to be bound by them.
00:25:46
Speaker
and That's a famous quote from Bruce Lee in that now we are we are doing marketing and we work with a lot of resellers.
00:25:57
Speaker
We're not trying to go around our existing customers, but there is a spot for us to have a marketing plan in place, which before 2020 just did not exist at all.
00:26:09
Speaker
So by doing things like that, we're we're changing the course of where we're headed while still maintaining our core values. I think the last part is the most important thing, is maintaining the core values that your parents set forth while also innovating, but not innovating for innovation's sake, it's innovating for growth's sake.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah. And my folks, it sounds like I'm not intending to dog on the way they did things. Technology was different at the time when they were doing things.
00:26:40
Speaker
And if I was in their shoes, I would probably do the exact same thing they did. However,
00:26:49
Speaker
who knew how technology would improve? And now I'm fixing a lot of... issues like server issues, for example, just doing upgrades like that.
00:27:00
Speaker
It's stuff that they're just not interested in It's hard to anticipate things that are going to change what software we're going to need in the future. They didn't put a whole lot of four foresight into that, but the software we're using now it didn't even exist when they were building our server for the first time, for example. So it's just things like that really spark a lot of change.
00:27:20
Speaker
Nice. Let's talk about your mom, because you've mentioned, i think, three times that she was a stay-at-home mom. You've done so with, and ah I think, certain amount of reverence in your voice which and response, because that's a hard job in and of itself.
00:27:36
Speaker
What does your mom do for the business? Because she's involved in the bill too. So my dad comes in every day. Usually he is done working around lunchtime. My mom, she comes in between three and five days a week. She has been doing the, my dad and I focus on the front of the house, the customer relations, how things are presented, quoting, that type of stuff.
00:28:02
Speaker
My mom and my sister, they're doing the payroll, HR, invoicing, writing the checks, that type of stuff. So everybody's got their own spot.
00:28:13
Speaker
Yeah, we work in two teams, basically. Okay. Is there a succession plan in place? Have you talked about it? Have you said it's going to be this date and dad's going to cut down to three days a week? um wait We're constantly talking about it, going back to my mom and my sister.
00:28:30
Speaker
Well, we just switched payroll companies. It's not on my mom anymore because she wasn't going to learn how to use the new kiosk. Like she has just said, this is yours now. It's... So things like that are already in place.
00:28:44
Speaker
I think everybody likes their parents or at least they have an appreciation for your parents. You wear it on your sleeve. So what are some of the lessons that you've learned
Employee Focus and Team Trust
00:28:52
Speaker
from your parents? Like you talked about how technology, they didn't exist, but you also, they've grown a company to the extent that not an insignificant anymore.
00:29:04
Speaker
So they did a lot of things. What are some of those things that you learned from them? The most important thing is our employees, actually. Having a good group of people that we can trust on.
00:29:18
Speaker
And I would say that's been the most pivotal thing that has helped us grow is we've had a little bit of turnover. it If you want a title, Foam Industries is not the place to work, I can tell you that.
00:29:31
Speaker
That doesn't mean there aren't opportunities for advancement or anything, but it's just having a good core group of people has always been, has made growth the easiest.
00:29:42
Speaker
So who else is are are key stakeholders at your company besides your family? We have salespeople right now that we have a high level of trust in. We have design staff that has to talk to sales and management to make sure they're designing the best product for the company and just making sure everybody has those core values that we want to make the best product for our customer.
00:30:10
Speaker
And best has to be in the eyes of our customer, not necessarily what we think. Well, let's get back to the product side for a little while, because one of the things that we've helped you on oh is actually developing a product line that now selling.
00:30:26
Speaker
So you're not just making stuff for other people. You know, you're making stuff for you. Tell everybody what that is. So we have a website, foampartydecor.com. ah We have, and a lot of other foam companies have made signs and specialty items for people. And we decided that it's actually fun to make these things. So what if we just made them for other people too?
00:30:53
Speaker
ah do you make the Do you make the fingers? is that one of the things you make is the fingers? ah We do not make those, but we have the technology. Okay. Because Andy was saying that he would like to give me a finger and I was thinking that it was foam related.
00:31:07
Speaker
Maybe not. Okay. You're number one in his book, right? Definitely am. what's what's ah So what's foam party decor? What do you make? We make the craziest stuff you've ever thought of about the materials that we fabricate.
00:31:21
Speaker
We participate in an event called the Twin Cities Packaging Expo that's going to be coming up September of 2025. Last year, we made a photo booth. that's eight feet square with the cutout of the state of Minnesota in it with printed panels on the front and the back. So you walk through this hallway and you get your picture taken and and you're onto the next thing.
00:31:42
Speaker
We make a lot of monuments for people. So if for Joey's bar mitzvah, we'll have big hockey jerseys with his name and number printed on them and just have those placed throughout the event. We've done wedding decorations, table numbers, whatever you want.
Expansion into Foam Party Decor
00:32:00
Speaker
We'll make it. What has the transition been like turning your service business into a product-based business? It's really the same thing. It's just a matter of, it's just a unique shape. We treat it the same way. like The customer is having a deadline. They're having a party. If we're a day late, we shouldn't even start because it ain't going.
00:32:20
Speaker
So still it comes back to those core values of Joey's bar mitzvah is on Saturday. They got us set up for the party on Friday night. So we better get it done or figure out how we're going to get it done.
00:32:33
Speaker
Nice. So for anybody who's out there, who's thinking about working with their parents or thinking about taking a job with a family member, what's a couple pieces of advice that you would give them?
00:32:46
Speaker
I know a lot of other family businesses that have not ended in the success story like we have. I would say do some real inward looking and make sure that you have a stable relationship with the family members that you're going to be working with.
00:33:03
Speaker
Got it. I think there's also a degree of compartmentalization that happens too. Yes. Like i work with a married couple I have zero idea how they do it, where they come to work and they're together all day and then they go home and just, it's the little things like, how was your day? I was with you for half the day. So I don't really need to ask that.
00:33:26
Speaker
Yeah. My wife does not work with us, but like my folks, their life is the business. And I'm sure it's the same with Dave and Jen, where it's not so much the, Hey, how you doing? Or how was your day at dinner? It's what are we going to do about this?
00:33:43
Speaker
You're always, you can't turn it off. But I think they do, and they go, ah they often, they, and they don't talk about it for long periods of time and think that they talk and sometimes they really don't. So they, I think that's something that I've learned, especially from Janice, the idea of compartmentalization that, that at the end of the day, it's work is done. It's time to be other people and they do a really good job.
00:34:08
Speaker
So a couple more questions before we wrap up. What on earth is dropping acid pedal at you? and That's a great question. Anybody that has guitar pedals or bass pedals, I'm able to etch a design into the face of the pedal.
00:34:27
Speaker
Or I can take a pedal that, a stock pedal, take the guts out and put it in a new enclosure with a different design. Really? Is that something you just do in your garage or is that part of the foam family of companies?
00:34:41
Speaker
It's just a fun thing I do. And then I decided it would, I, it is a service that I can offer for other folks. Um, I, the best way to describe it to, and who's not familiar, it would be like a tattoo for your guitar pedals.
00:34:56
Speaker
What got you into that? I've always been a guitar player, been in bands, whatnot, as a member of an online community. And then there was a couple people that were doing it and thought, man, that's really cool. And thought, I have the capability to do it.
00:35:14
Speaker
And there's there everybody's process is a little bit different, but there's nothing unique about it. You can watch a couple YouTube videos and just... develop your own process for it. And that's what I did. And then i was like, want some of these other pedals. So maybe I'll charge people to send me, have them send their pedals.
00:35:33
Speaker
I'll let you and send them back. And then I can buy something else that I want. So it's more of a side gig, but and at the same time, Absolutely. Jack, as we end the show today, one of the questions that I always ask somebody is that old Bob Seger line of, what do you wish you didn't know now that you didn't know
Importance of Documented Processes
00:35:53
Speaker
then? If you could go back five years and give yourself a piece of advice, what would it be?
00:35:59
Speaker
One of the ah key things that's been, we purchased the company about a year ago. And then one of the key things that we've determined is getting our processes consistent and written down.
00:36:12
Speaker
Even just small things, the most minuscule things, if you just can get a process in place and write it down, something simple like, how do you write your quotes?
00:36:26
Speaker
It is a one pound EPS one by 12 plane pad. Anytime there is a something new that comes up, you have the process in your head of how to write it down and it will just make your life so much easier.
00:36:45
Speaker
Do you know the, do you know the name John Taffer? I do not. John does as a show on the Paramount network called Bar Rescue, which basically involves him yelling at people for 45 minutes and then rebuilding a bar.
00:36:59
Speaker
I read his book about revitalizing a business. And one of the things he says in the book, I'm crib it because I don't often get it correctly, is the things in business that you can control is who you hire,
00:37:15
Speaker
And the processes in which you do things and interact with customers, the feeling that the customer has in working with you, that is really your only true unique prop is that feeling that they have, and you have no control over it, except for the first.
00:37:36
Speaker
So that's haunted me ever since I've read it. And Kerry, you say something very similar. I think it's along those same lines because you have all this creativity in how you do things, but the things that really matter is the process.
00:37:51
Speaker
Well, and to parallel that, a lot of the customers that we deal with aren't actually the ones touching the foam at the end of the day. We're dealing with a purchasing agent, a production scheduler who's trying to get their product out the door and then their customer is the one that's actually coming in contact with the foam.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah. So the end of the day, the foam is ah product in and of itself. It's also supporting another product. Yes. all in All in lines of that ah that that mysterious question that you asked earlier, which is what is the point of your packaging?
00:38:32
Speaker
Yep. Because that's a customer interaction point that people just tend to blow over, i think, which is why I've always said, so I've always liked you and I've always enjoyed thinking of all the different ways that it's overlooked and underappreciated.
00:38:48
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Awesome.
Conclusion and Promotion
00:38:50
Speaker
Jack, the last question that we generally ask people is we give them the opportunity for naked self-promotion. So if somebody is interested in learning more about film industries, where can they find you?
00:39:03
Speaker
You can go to our website at fullmindustries.com. Thank you, Jack. And appreciate you taking the time today. This has been another episode of Dial It in He was Dave, but he's not here.
00:39:15
Speaker
me. Dial It In is produced by Andy Wachowski and Nicole Fairclough. with apologies to Tony Kornheiser, only I will try to do better the next time.