Ep. 8 : How Printing Can Make or Break Your POP Signage and Temporary Displays with Guest Martha Tucci

Episode 8:  How Printing Can Make or Break Your POP Signage and Temporary Displays with Guest Martha Tucci

Summary

In this episode, Christine and Trevor discuss the growing trend of storefront portals in retail, which are being used to control spend, manage brand integrity, streamline approvals, and consolidate purchasing power. They also explore the rise of brand collaborations, where brands team up with other brands or celebrities to create unique and attention-grabbing products. The guest, Martha Tucci, Director of Project Management at In-Store Design Display, shares her expertise in print production and display manufacturing. She discusses the importance of staying relevant in the industry, managing quality, and preventing errors in the printing process.

Takeaways

• Storefront portals are becoming increasingly popular in retail as a way to control spend, manage brand integrity, streamline approvals, and consolidate purchasing power.
• Brand collaborations are a growing trend, with brands teaming up with other brands or celebrities to create unique and attention-grabbing products.
• Staying relevant in the industry requires staying up-to-date with industry trends and continuously learning about new technologies and processes.
• Managing quality in the printing process involves thorough proofing, checking color values, and ensuring the structure and design of displays are suitable for their intended use and shipping requirements.
• Preventing errors in the printing process requires attention to detail, multiple rounds of proofing, and seeking feedback from others to catch any potential mistakes.
• The hosts and guest emphasize the importance of teamwork and collaboration in the retail industry, as well as the need to shift from a 'me' mindset to a 'we' mindset.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Overview

00:56 The Rise of Storefront Portals in Retail

15:04 Expert Insights on Print Production and Display Manufacturing

28:23 Managing Quality in the Printing Process

29:22 Preventing Errors in Printing

31:16 The Importance of Teamwork and Collaboration in Retail

39:14 Memo to Myself and I Am

42:01 Conclusion

Transcript

BlueLightSpecialPodcast (00:02.702)
Welcome to Blue Light Special, the podcast for CPG brand marketers who want to lighten up their hustle in retail and real life. I'm Christine Wright. And I'm Trevor Lewis. We're here to decode the mysteries of retail and give you some insider hacks to make your brand talk the shelf. Let's get into this week's episode.

BlueLightSpecialPodcast (00:29.006)
Welcome. Let's get into this week's episode where we explore the world of POP signage and temporary displays with in -store design displays, very own Martha Tucci. She's director of project management and is the person who makes sure the wheels don't fall off the train as it's going full steam ahead. She'll be joining us later in the episode. But first, Christine, what's kind of happening in your world? Well, let's talk about...

what's happening that I have seen lately. And I will say it is, and this might be a little odd for retail, but it's storefront portals. We're starting to see a lot more ask from brands. And I think, and you can give me your take on it, Trevor, but I feel like it's happening because there are a lot of mergers.

and brands coming together under an umbrella, which unfortunately means you're letting some staff go. So there's less people to basically keep the train moving. But you're still trying to manage all of the brand assets and the spend and what's the most efficient way to do that. And now we're seeing asks for storefront portals to control spend and control and manage brand integrity.

Yeah, it's definitely been...

associated to probably like 75 or 80 % of all of our conversations that we're having in some regard. I think that the challenge that they're trying to solve for, I think there's a few different factors. Definitely you mentioned what I believe is the majority of them. I also think that as a whole, we're still figuring out how to work post pandemic. Yes. And figuring out, you know, what is the right head count?

BlueLightSpecialPodcast (02:21.07)
across all organizations. How lean can you go? What are the efficiencies? How were there opportunities of streamline? Because I think for a while, you know, people was just anything that they thought would make it a little bit efficient, they just buy it. And then now CFOs are scrutinizing everything as they as they certainly should. But I think that's another factor is you've got hybrid remote.

these different scenarios, as well. And so, you know, how do you look at a centralized, you know, functionality that streamlines a lot of it. then in addition to what are some of the other objectives, which is, yeah, kind of approvals, right? When you think about just the hybrid and remote, setting, you know, that makes something as simple as an approval a little bit more complicated now.

and so I think that that's one thing that they're looking at is how do we streamline approvals when we got filled sales teams, that have specific desires of what they're looking for in order to support their clientele or their channel or whatever it may be. And those are fairly diverse. They can be diverse on regions, on categories or whatever the scenario is, but you got a bunch of field sales teams that are continuously trying to work.

with in marketing departments on what type of assets they need to support them. And it's not typically a one size fits all either. So there's a lot of unique customization within each one of those requests. And so as you know, someone who's responsible for managing all of that, that becomes difficult, the more layers that you add onto that. And so I think that that's one thing that they're trying to definitely solve for. And then just brain integrity.

Just how we manage the brand so that we don't have a bunch of different colors of our brand out there. Simple as that. You don't have your field sales reps going rogue and just ordering whatever. Whatever, yes. And corporate has no visuals of that. And to know what's going on, it's a way to kind of wrangle the truth. It definitely wrangles that in. And then I think that there's this thought that also you can kind of streamline your purchasing power as well.

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and ultimately drive down and get closer to more transparent pricing, which I think is what the CEO definitely wants just for planning purposes, but being able to consolidate all that spend as the first step of saying, hey, we spent this X amount of money with this company versus these 16 suppliers. Are we getting the best price? Are we getting the best quality? I mean, all of that becomes extremely complicated and difficult to manage. And so.

I believe we're at the forefront of it. I think that this online portal, not every client is going to have the same desired functionality. And so there needs to be some flexibility, but you want to understand how much inventory we have. What do we need to reorder? What does this team need? How do we manage their requests? I think that everyone's looking for a tool that is technology to help solve for it. And I think the way we look at things, I...

Honestly, just coming from a print background, storefront portals have been around for a long time. They were really meant to just kind of drive digital print and personalization and variable data back in the day. But they have evolved so much over time that now it's not just kind of a widget or a tool. It's something that we can customize as a functionality process driven tool for our clients.

But something to keep in mind is user experience on the client end. How is your marketing team and your purchasing team and your sales reps using this? And how user friendly is it? Because quite honestly, at the end of the day, people want something as easy as what they're doing personally buying. Like you're going on an Amazon, you're putting it in a cart. That's about it. I mean, it's very, very user friendly. And I think for us,

as an offering to our clients, we have to be cognizant of that and make sure that whatever we're offering fits their needs, but is very user friendly. Yeah. I mean, because the reality is we've been, we've even been managing it in Sorts Insulate inventory for years and years and years.

BlueLightSpecialPodcast (06:44.59)
and it's evolved into a little bit better UX experience, but it's still in large part, it looks like an Excel sheet functions like an Excel sheet. And, you know, I think Martha will be on later and she'd be like, yeah, that's perfect. Yeah. If you gave me that, I'd be like, but not everybody's Martha. Yeah, not everyone. And so you're absolutely right. The thing that's happened is we're all consumers of digital shopping experiences now, whether we like it or not, but that set a level of expectation. So if it's not as easy as the Amazon experience,

The adoption is going to be, it's going to fail. It's almost like execution at store level. If this, if these are not adopted, these storefronts, they're kind of useless. Same with, if it doesn't execute it at store level, it's kind of useless. So the end result really has to be at the forefront before you start. It definitely does. The other thing that we're helping, you know, clients as they kind of navigate this or explore it is it's really easy to.

think about technology for solving your most current state. And when you look at technology and you have to understand what all has to take place in order to get it adopted and being utilized the way that everyone envisions it, is you also have to map out a little bit to your future state and understand and plan for growth. So if you currently have, if you're planning on having five immediate users,

but you didn't talk with HR and they plan to grow headcount by 30%. Yeah, you're going to onboard all of these users later on. You could get into some, some, you know, challenges because of just the limitations or functionality. So I think it's that that's probably the number one thing that we're definitely consulting our clients on right now is let's understand your current state. Let's map out to a little bit of what you believe the future state and let's make sure that this thing, you know, offers.

some flexibility to help grow with you. And so that's just the number one piece of advice that we're, you know, regardless of whether we're working with you or not. The other thing I think is important is map the process, either have lived in a process. We've looked at technology. I've mentioned it on the show before. It's, it's always people processed then technology. The idea always places technology right after people. And so I think that it's.

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to understand the process, right? And we've got a large client that we're working with implementing a new portal system. And they're interested in current state only needing 25 users, but they want to be able to potentially expand to a thousand plus users. That's a lot. Well, that process is simple as how are you going to manage sign in and sign out in terms of just a username and path? Like what happens when that...

you know, thousand person decides that this job is no longer for me. How does that process evolve? It's just a one initial thought that we've kind of made sure that we need to kind of outline and map out. So I think the portal, because everyone is looking for how do we create some efficiencies, we'll continue to be top of mind for a lot of the, you know, shopper marketing, brand managers, especially as they work amongst the agencies, the production teams, the fulfillment teams.

good news is we can help consolidate that as well, but I think that they're often spanning across all of those different, you know, suppliers and partners. And so, I think this is one way that you can actually create an integrated system, is through a level of a portal of some sort. All right, let's get into our next segment, which is show and tell. This is where Christine and I share most recent personal experience in retail.

I know you've seen something coming out of Boulder, Colorado. tell us what's, some of the trends you've seen. Well, the trend that, that I'm seeing, and I know we're seeing because we've had this conversation is just brand collaborations. There's so many either brand to brand or celebrity to brand, but one that comes to mind is boost mobile and coach prime. I mean, neon, neon, that partnership.

And I mean, they had, they truly have, I actually just kind of dug into it a little bit because it just amazed me that definitely it's speaking to a certain demographic and target market, but they have a specialized Motorola razor phone. It's golden black. It's signed by Dion and it has his mantra. You gotta believe on the actual phone. So yeah, it's limited time only kind of thing, but it's very cool. They definitely leaned into that. you know,

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You know, the influencer strategy and understand, you know, Dion's level of influence. Some of the campaigns they run have been pretty cool as well. So I know that, you know, I follow Dion on Instagram. So I've seen him just promoting it as the influencer, but they've also had to place some of those phones across campus. So where he's the head coach, they play some of those like a scavenger hunt, which then created additional media around it. Obviously his media.

extends outside of just him as an individual. You know, his son Shiloh's one of the top two or three NIL paid college athletes as well. So all of his entire family is, you know, rich and understanding influencer as well. So it really expands outside of Dion into his additional network. When you just think about how do we create awareness on this, which has been cool to see. Then they've also

did what we always talk about is how do you create a true Omni experience and they've deployed and the messaging and signage is also the same in store as what they're doing visually or in the influencer channels. So I'm curious to how. It was very smart of Boost Mobile. It's definitely. Good collaboration. Yeah. I mean, and they knew that, you know, they've got to really put their stake in the ground, right? I mean, the competition in that market is tough when you think about the big players.

you know, when you think about how do we penetrate, you know, within our audience, I mean, kudos to them. Definitely created some awareness within that partnership. What's anything else on the brand collaboration? I know, I think we've mentioned it before the the elf liquid death collaboration that is just very cool. I just think it's cool. I don't I'm an elf consumer. I don't know that I've had liquid death. I think you have. Yeah, but I'm a big elf consumer and just not a not two brands I would put together.

But it was really cool. Yeah. And they pulled that off. And what's cool is you're seeing this, I mean, you would think some of these techs would be deployed on more of your emerging brands, but you're seeing legacy brands lend into this brand collaboration as well. So I know that we saw another one with Barbie. And so a high -end set of - The pink barbecue Barbie sauce.

BlueLightSpecialPodcast (13:43.374)
Pepto -Bismol pink packaging, but it's all pink, it's Barbie. It was Barbie. Yeah. And they had what? Tomato ketchup or something? just. What was it? And then Barbie Hue sauce. So I, again, like many of the other trends that we've recognized, if you do it right, it's extremely effective. But I think that what, what I believe they're all trying to accomplish is how do we pattern interrupt?

You know, we've been Heinz catch up for unique, be different, unique. You're also trying to attract, you know, new purchasers. So when you think about getting in younger generations or older generations, you've got to be able to kind of connect with them on where they're at or what are some of the things that they're thinking about. So I really love it. I think it just makes it a little bit more interesting. It's just more fun in the marketplace. So.

I'm curious at what are going to be some of the, you know, in a year from now, where are we going to be set here? Thinking about what, which other brands we not see happening as a brand collaboration. So kudos to, you know, all of them. They're kind of testing the one that's on who they're collaborating with. So today we would like to welcome Ms. Martha Tucci to the podcast. Welcome Martha.

We are so happy to have you and I know you're thrilled to be doing this for us. Just as thrilled as Jackie was. It's not really in my core competency, I'll just say. That's okay. We'll stretch you a little today. Well, a little bit about Ms. Martha. She's with In -Store Design Display. She's the Director of Project Management. She's a seasoned professional with a comprehensive understanding of print production, corrugated and temporary, semi -permanent and permanent display production.

Martha actually truly went to school for this. I know we say a lot that we didn't go to school for this, but Martha went to school for this and built her three decade career around print production. Her proficiency extends beyond the creative aspects to include a deep understanding of logistics, ensuring the seamless execution of projects from concept to delivery. Martha's commitment to staying abreast of industry trends.

BlueLightSpecialPodcast (15:57.358)
and her extensive product knowledge make her an invaluable asset in navigating the complexities of print and display production. So welcome, Martha, and to kick us off, tell us how you got into print and why you went to school for this. Well, I grew up in a rural town in the middle of Missouri near Lake Palmdeterre. And

there weren't there were some classes I didn't have classes I could take in my junior year so I took a Vogue Tech class which was in Buffalo, Missouri and Lewisburg but my my classes were for photography half the year and print half the year so I was very interested in photography but I learned about print and it was much more interesting and so I ended up going to Central Missouri State University because that's what it was called then.

And for the printing program they have there, basically, CMSU and Pittsburgh both had programs that have now been eliminated. So it's back to, we didn't go to school for that. They're more around the design portion now than the actual print production. So it's just a little different, but that's what got me into print. Well, I know that you've kind of stayed that path your entire career.

But have you stayed with what you went to school for or how did that transition as you went through your career? So I spent 17 years between two different printing companies, one being Spangler printers. Those people are familiar with from before they got too big to so big they were bought out a few times. But you and I actually work together at Spangler.

Yes. Yes, we did. Yeah, that was in the earlier years. But after that, yeah, I was like, no numbers. In 2000, I moved to a company that did permanent and temporary displays. And most of what I learned in printing as far as the manufacturing process, the steps involved, the quality required,

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translated to many of the other processes used to produce porgit displays, permanent displays and those kinds of things. So even though I stepped away from traditional commercial print, it was a background for what was needed to know about those kinds of displays. So because you kind of made that tradition over all of those years from strictly print to then into retail,

How do you stay relevant to continue to evolve as you move forward with your career? So it's hard because there's so much going on all the time. There's something new to learn. And I geek out a little bit on the understanding of the machines themselves, not just the capabilities of a company, but what kind of equipment they use to produce what we need.

And so I think that keeps me involved a lot more because understanding how these new machines are working and what the trends are, the trend is all towards digital, of course. And but just learning the capabilities and understanding, you know, where we can push the limits to be a little bit more competitive. I know that back in the day, press checks were a thing and they kind of no longer.

are for customers, but you'll still do press checks for our work, correct? Yes. Yes. If we're doing something new or a color group we haven't done or a one -time piece, we'll be at press. So our goal on press is to sign the first sheet, you know, because that means we've done everything ahead of that correctly. But one reason that we want to be there is to make sure that we didn't make a mistake.

Just one more time to look at it before you've paid for the paper. So we're checking color, we're checking all those things that go along with it, size, is it backed up right, occasionally, those kind of things. All part of a press okay, you're looking at color densities, you're looking at color values and just how it looks to you visually.

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as well as making sure that everything's on that page. And this is not the time to do a review for typos. Because they get costly after you've made plates. Yes. Well, you kind of, and I geek out with you. I know that you and I are kind of the nerds around here. I start talking, everyone says it's in a different language. Yeah, they don't know what language you're speaking. No, but when it comes to like,
all of the different print processes, how do you make decisions on the type of print for a display project? 

When we when we initially see a project, you know, we'll budget it and we'll imagine how it'll print. But honestly, until we've done a prototype and understand the quantities, you know, we there's a variety of ways to print, obviously. Digital is very much in the forefront. There's flexo when you don't need the quality. You're just trying to get an image on something, you know, maybe it's.

please remove for a filler, that kind of thing. But for the main body and structure, you want the highest quality available for the price at the quantity. So you have a range of doing digital direct, which they have many more presses available for doing Corregate. There's a Nozomi, a Barbrand, and...

the HP printers. See, she's going down the side. I know. I know what she's saying, but you're like, shh, deer in the headlights. Okay. And, but there's still traditional litho label, which is very high quality images when we put it on the display. But there's things that you, that, you know, there's, there's always a trade off. So litho label can crack a lot more than you would ever see on a digital print. So it just, you have to, you have to weigh the,

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the benefits versus the quality concerns and quality level needed. Now, some displays, depending on what they are, if they're only gonna be in the store for 30 days, say a Black Friday event, solid coverage printed in Flexo is fine. So it has to do with the quantity, the use, and the quality desired. Well, we're...

The three of us actually are coming off kind of a late night last night because we were at the PIA awards. Trevor has props. Look at that. You are really kind of our spokesperson and at the forefront of our PIA membership. So tell everyone what PIA is and kind of what we did last night and what we want. It's the Martha event. It's like a class reunion when we're there.

Yeah, it's so fun to see everybody. We haven't seen any in a while. So we entered our holiday card, which included three ornaments. And each of the ornaments were using a different technique of our routers and laser cutters. The card itself was printed at largeprinting .com and then we and it was square. And then we laser cut the edge.

to show the city skyline. Sorry, I couldn't think of that. Yeah, the skyline of Kansas City, it's very intricate. And then there was a wooden ornament, an acrylic ornament that looked like a snowflake that showcased laser capabilities since we did not have to flame polish it. And then there was a max metal piece that we routed. So just a little bit different.

applications of our in -house capabilities. So with that, we won gold in our Division II category and a lovely acrylic, if you will, award. And I'm very excited, very excited to be a part of it, to see all the people in printing in this industry. It's just, it's amazing. It's an amazing group. And tell us about IDD actually did the centerpieces for the event. And

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What were those? So Mr. Printopoly is a character they developed for this event. And so the Monopoly was the theme. And the Monopoly board was a three -part piece where it had Mr. Monopoly, a dice, and then a base. And all three parts, Bolte Hall volunteered to do the printing.

They printed on vinyl, mounted it to the PVC we supplied, and then cut it to shape flat. We did a second cut underneath the dice in the base to route out the corners so that they could fold flat or at a right angle and glued those together. And then the three and the dice had the same treatment where the little man, Mr.

as I call him. He was a left and right glued together and then his hand wasn't quite glued so we could put the table cards that identified the who sponsored those tables. So it was it was awesome. It was a nice collaboration with Bolte and then it was very exciting to see them in place last night and to see people taking them home because they wanted them.

That was fun. Yeah, a lot of people did take them off the table, but they did save some to enter next year for the awards ceremony. Yes. So, yes, very exciting. Well, you talk a lot about the technical aspects of things, and we're very thankful that we have you to nerd out because a lot of us don't know what that stuff is, but it's very important. Tell us how you manage quality and prevent errors in the printing process. So.

You can't you can't prove things enough. So you you know, initially we do a white body, some kind of a sample that's in 3D because that's the beginning. And we make sure that the structure is correct and for where it is placed in the store, as well as how it's going to ship. So if we're shipping it by truck, but then our end user is shipping it UPS, we need to know that.

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because it is different in how we ship test, it's different in how the structure is built, and the fillers and boxes. We also have to know at that point if it's going to go to a distribution center, what are their specifications for how tall a product can be packed? Are we able to use anything other than a 4840 wooden pallet to put it on? So designing the structure, making sure it works,

not only for the in -store where it's going to be last, but where it's going to be and how it's going to get there, where it's going to be in between. And then from there, the graphics, we provide die lines to our client to lay the art to. We do some of that ourselves as well, if that's needed. And then just the proofing there.

You know, we're going to proof it. We're going to look at a PDF. We're going to look at a printed sample. We're going to make sure not only is it correct for when it's folded, that everything is correct visually, but also for the press. Do we have it, you know, in the right position for the best quality? Sometimes the direction of the print can be important. Most times not, but it's still something we look at everything we can.

Proof, proof, proof, that's all we need. Anytime you skip a proof, you're sorry. Or have another set of eyes look at it, somebody that hasn't been looking at it for two weeks. That's definitely true. That is definitely true. We will assemble our displays and put them up in our workroom and kind of direct some traffic in there. So Cathy on our team is in charge of client services. So she...

She'll look at something I haven't, I've been looking at all the time and she'll come up with some off the wall, common sense comments that I never thought of. And I'm like, yeah, okay. I'll fix that. Thank you, go away. Yeah, and I mean, even Randy Edge, our owner, he plays, he was in the workroom the other day and he's like,

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Where is everybody? I want to talk about this, you know, yay. And so it was, it was wonderful. It's always good to have, you know, feedback from as many people as we can. It's definitely a team effort. Well, you've given us so much detail, probably more than Trevor. But I will say that it was fun coming to IDD when I came here because you and I have worked together so long ago at print shops.

And then both of us kind of transitioned into retail and the whole Walmart Bentonville environment. And then we ended up back together again, all these years later. So it's so much fun to have another nerd on the team. It is, it is. I was so excited when you were here because it's like, yes, means a thousand. Yes. We need bleeds on the R. I understand Martha's language. She's like, yeah, that's correct. I'm like, thank you.

Thank you, sweet baby Jesus. I am not talking. This is not gibberish. Okay. Well, I, that is, that is enough for me to question you and put you kind of on point with all of this. I'm going to turn it over to Trevor for our lightning round. All right. Well, Martha, this is our lightning rounds. some of them we ask all of our guests to participate in. And so, before we jump into this, I do just want to say thank you. It's definitely a phenomenal to have.

experts on your team and i'm certainly nerds extremely grateful for that and i think that a lot of our listeners will you know i i'm hopeful to be able to take away just how many different elements are moving on just the simplest projects that you have to continuously manage and so we're just thankful that we have an expert on our team to help assist with that

so let's get into it. again, this is like let me ask everyone and so Martha, I'm gonna jump right in. Are you ready? I'm ready. Alright. What's one new brand you recently purchased and why? Okay. Sadly, I haven't purchased anything. There's some people that have said I haven't purchased anything. Martha's kind of the bargain shopper. Yeah, I am. I'm I'm thrift store dollar

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25 general or dollar general, whatever it takes. I tend to enjoy the hunt. Yes. I guess we'll let that one pass. The next one is, if you have purchased anything recently, I'm not sure if you purchased anything off of tick tock or IG, but have you, like ever like in app, like in Facebook, I've, I've gotten swindled in Facebook where ads pop up and I've ordered. Have you ever done that? No, I'm, I'm very, if I find something that I like,

I will just see if Amazon has it. Thanks for, I just like having that one. Probably I do the same too. And, that's, but I mean, they were during Christmas time, the Amazon guy spent, I mean, I don't know why I didn't set him out drinks, but he was at our house every freaking day. What's one piece of technology that you cannot live without?

Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna skip my phone because that's what I said when they asked me. Yeah. But I know Excel. It's Excel for me. You are an Excel wizard. I live and die in Excel. Excel. It's just the way my brain works. I'm glad you can't live without it because I certainly can. I'm not a wizard. If anybody has any problems with it, we say go get Martha.

My, my second favorite is monday .com, which we use as a project manager. You said like Monday. I mean, it's, you know, Martha's really helped spearheads, just the, you know, adoption and usage in our organization with Monday. And so I definitely can understand cause she's our dedicated expert. when it comes to Monday .com, I will say before I came to IDD, I always had job tickets, physical.

job tickets and anywhere I worked had physical job tickets with all of the documentation. And once I came here and you guys had adopted monday .com, those have gone away. Everything is electronic. It is, it is. And we've definitely, you know, evolved with our usage and so much of that's to do with the way that our project management team utilizes the system. but you know, I think one of the direct, it's, it's really interesting because it's had a benefit in even how we were.

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specifically in the sales arena because you know if you work remote and there was a ticketing system that you're not necessarily have much visibility into that creates a little uncertainty of what's happening with my projects and so being able to just say hey we got a global dashboard that gives you visibility into your projects no matter where they're at has been you know interesting but you know well received for even in the recruiting so.

muddy .com. I think I did mention that one as well, but it's good to know that you. Well, it's integration into HubSpot. It's, I mean, everything. And I, I must believe it was a, someone who loved Excel that programmed it. Cause I feel like that I can, I can program in it. That's what I think. What's the worst career advice you've been given.

I don't know. Don't take it personal. And this, you know, just our industry is when, especially when I was younger, was certainly male dominated. And that was, that was always a dismissive, I felt, piece of advice in certain situations. It can be, you know, it can be very correct in that you're just being emotional, but.

If I didn't care about what I was doing, you know, I feel like that's what you're saying. Don't care about what you're doing. It's a little condescending sometimes. Yeah. And so, yeah, it's more about, okay, I understand this is important to you. Let's hear what the issue is. So that's, yeah. Definitely a good, not good advice, but definitely good that you recognize that early. Cause yeah, I mean,

passion and emotions. I mean, that's a fine line. It is a fine line for sure. And you definitely want people that care about what they do. exactly. The printing world. where do you go to consume information to do your job better? Well, you know, I'm on several, feeds about AI and, obviously I'm often on LinkedIn, about new products and new.

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vendors and new places that are doing something new. I love some of the three dimensional visuals that you can see as billboards nowadays. Those things are awesome. We saw a lady with the flowing hair that went out from the side of the building. Yeah, that was cool. I know you shared that on LinkedIn as well. I did. I did. I love that stuff. And.

You're a researcher. You do a lot of research. Yeah. I kind of like to, I like to dig in and find out, you know, as much as I can, once I find something interesting. So the, I mean, yeah. And, and chat GPT is my friend. We have a little personal relationship. So, yeah, that's another one. Awesome. One of the last question.

to get you off the hot seat is what advice would you give your younger self? Your 25 year old younger self. It's a long time ago girlfriend, wasn't it? I know. Well, when I was 25, I think, well, I'm going to date myself, but I think in maybe that year, it might have been the year before was the Royals won the World Series.

And, anyway, I would just tell myself to stop drinking and smoking. God love you. That one will take you off the hot seat. Good way to end. Thanks again, Martha, for coming on and joining us. And, we're excited to be able to share this with our audience and.

Hopefully, you know, they're interested in connecting with you and following you on LinkedIn. I know you'll welcome that as well. And absolutely. Thank you for coming on to kick it with us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And for our last segment, we want to give you a little glimpse into our own minds. We all have those moments where we reflect, learn and remind ourselves of certain truths. For me, it's my memo to myself and for Christine, it's her I am for the day.

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It's a chance for us to be a bit vulnerable, share our thoughts, and maybe some of it will resonate with you. So I'll jump off here with my memo to myself. And it's the memo, you know, what I was told myself was it's continuing to shift from me to we. And, you know, I think that that is when you're in the mix of it all, it's often to, you know, think about me, me, me, and what are, you know,

these emotions just me or whatever it is, but you know, when you're building something and you're, you need all teammates to contribute, it's important that you continue to shift it from me to we, and you know, I think some of that's really relevant in my world right now. but also, something I just, I I'm gravitating towards is the shift from me to we. That's, that's a good one. I really do like that one.

Well, for my I am, which is my I am is how I start my day. I have my accountability partners and we text each other when we're having coffee and say, what are you today? What am I? And for me, as a company, we've recently all gone through the whole working genius. It's kind of like a disc profile, kind of what are your strengths and weaknesses? And it was very shocking for me to realize that of everyone in this company, we have our.

our genius engineer in the back long who just can work magic with any kind of structure. And he's innovative. He's high innovative. And for the only other person in the company to be high in innovation to be me, which was shocking, then I am innovative. And it was proven through this whole working through and figuring out what your strengths are. But you know, I really am. I'm just always looking at something and thinking, well, if it can't, we can't do this. Can we do this or what's plan B and plan C and.

I'm constantly have my wheels turning and being innovative to try to solve the problem. So, yes. Well, you, you definitely are. I think it also gave me some, you know, an a -ha like, yeah, that's, and then now I continuously see it being validated. When I think about, you know, even certain things I may ask you to do, I'm like, do we need to be innovative? Do we, or do we already have a solution? I'm like, if we need to be innovative, like just ask Christine, cause she, she'll have some weird off the way, you know, she'll at least be that thought starter. Yeah.

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you know, it may need to come through and kind of be refined, but, I definitely get validated through that. So I appreciate, Julie Edge for bringing that organization. And, yeah, now we have a big board and the entire team's mapped out. So you kind of see the frustrations as well as their working genius. and, well, that's a phenomenal I am. And, yeah, you're definitely an innovator. So.

All right. Well, that's it for this episode, folks. We're grateful to have you along the ride as we lighten up your hustle through retail and real life. Thanks for listening and keep your questions and comments coming. We love tuning into what you want to know about helping your brand stand out in store. Please like and share the podcasts. We appreciate your help getting the word out about Blue Light Special. And finally, join us for next week's episode where we will dig into logistics and freight for retail.

Let's do it. This podcast is a production of InStore Design Display, the go -to expert for guiding and elevating your in-store experience. Our wordsmith, Julie Edge, and mix master, Jackie Vera, make all of this possible. So a big thanks to them and the entire team at In -Store Design Display. Stay tuned for our next episode on YouTube or wherever you consume podcasts. We'd love to hear from our listeners, so please drop us a line and tell us what you want to hear about retail and real life.