The Business Leadership Podcast

Pivot for Success with Chris Laudidio
===

[00:00:00]

Chris: At one point California did have a lot of manufacturing, finding, manufacturing leadership, And people that can run a plant floor, is a little more challenging cause you know, those are skills that are no longer there.

And most of those guys have retired,

​

You are listening to the Business Leadership Podcast with Edwin Frondozo.

[00:00:20] Introduction
---

Edwin: Good morning. Good afternoon. Or good evening whenever you're checking this out. Thank you for joining me on another episode of the business leadership podcast. On this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Laudadio is the CEO, the founder of a multi-million dollar company, versa products, He's been an innovator in American made office furniture for nearly 20 years based in Los Angeles.

In our discussion, we talk about how it's essential. Of being able to pivot and adapt, especially when. When emotions are down and out. We're going to share how you show up. [00:01:00] And how it affects your team as a leader of the company. And we discuss what Google studio is and how you can use it to your advantage.

This episode is brought to you by Slingshot communications, the business leaders preferred phone system. Without further ado. Here we go.

[00:01:23] Start of conversation
---

Edwin: Welcome to the Business Leadership Podcast, Chris.

Chris: Hey, Edwin. Thank you for having.

Edwin: the listeners on, on the podcast we're always keen, you know, sometimes when it comes to the founder story, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that listen, there's a lot of executives as well, but you've built in amassed the pretty.

Pretty successful business, a pretty successful entrepreneurship career. can you share some of those times and what you really did to, to keep going and, and maybe the mindset shifts that you had to go

Chris: Yeah, so I think like, you know, I started out doing fitness equipment, more strength equipment and that was about, you know, little before 2000 [00:02:00] and would do like mail order and, and it was, you know, fitness is still a very competitive. And strength equipment as well, because there's, you know, it's not the most difficult product to make and you know, a lot of people can enter into it.

But when I started out it was a little challenging. We were doing magazine ads and it kind of had its ups and downs. And then, you know, obviously everything's about marketing once you kind of get that going. But, you know, you have these rough patches in business, all the. And, you know, everybody's gonna have these challenges.

And we started out, you know, relatively started out with like a hundred bucks, you know, just trying to put something together and it, it's pretty challenging, you know, there's, there's definitely times when you want to give up, even when the company's doing well. But, you know, when I started out, I, it hitches came to California, from Connecticut and I started trying to figure out what I was gonna do.

And then I was really challenged. I was trying to do these, I was trying to sell like a weightlift kit, like just a bench in weights and like shipping [00:03:00] that through like FedEx and UPS was like a disaster and it was really challenging. And I was living on a boat in Reno, Delray, and you know, I remember. One time I was like really exhausted and I'm not really the type that gives up.

I like driving for, you know, driving forward and, and I called my mom and I was like, you know what? I'm like, I'm tired of doing this shit. I'm like, it's not working out. You know, like, I, I think I wanna come home, you know? And then says to me, she's like, God damn it, she goes, You're not coming home.

She's like, what? What do you need? Like, so disgusted, right? Not genuinely like, Hey, your business didn't work out. I'm sorry. She's just like, you're not coming home. Like just, and I was like, okay. Like that wasn't what I expected. And then she was like, Hey, I'll help you out with your rent. How about that?

And she was just, you know, my mom was kind of a tough love and she still is, but. It was kind of interesting. So that was like one point, that was about the only point really. I said, Hey, you want to throw in the towel? And it was kind of early on and, and you know, you have those [00:04:00] moments though, so you know, you gotta, you gotta work past them.

Edwin: Well, I, I really love that. Thank you for sharing that. I love how your mother was just like, basically saying, you're not the son that I raised. What are you asking me

Chris: yeah, she's from the Bronx. You know, it's all about like, you know, she, she just say how it is, but it's funny.

Edwin: That's amazing. That's, that's, that's a great story. And I, I guess that from that point on, I guess in terms of, for you, you know, just that, that point where you're like, I'm ready to give up, but your mom's like, not even letting you give

Chris: Yeah, no, I, I don't know what her plan was like legitimately, she probably didn't want me in the house and the first business I started like, she was like, just get out, like get all this stuff outta here. And I had some trucks and I. I remember I destroyed the driveway trying to park my my truck, my first business in the driveway, and, and it was too heavy and sunk the driveway.

My dad was furious and so I think they were like, okay, don't bring your shit show home here. [00:05:00] So

Edwin: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's great. That's great. So, so you started, you know, leading this, this business when it comes to like fitness equipment. So tell me how you got to like, I. Building more, more different furnitures and getting into that, that space with versa.

Chris: Yeah, so with Versa, you know, obviously we started in 2000, you know, so that's the beginning of the internet. That's the beginning of computer and software and Microsoft and Apple. And I was in, I was doing fitness equipment and I was having success with that. We were doing a multi gym, we had our marketing down, and then, you know, I really wanted to be part of that computer movement, but I didn't know how to program computers.

I didn't understand how to make a computer. And I said, well, you know, I'll make a, I'll make a table. And that was, you know, it looked more like piece of fitness equipment at the time. But we got into it that way. And then as the internet was evolving, you know, Is the ultimate medium to sell anything, you know?

And then it was back in the day, [00:06:00] even when it was like not as, you know, you didn't have as much graphics as you do now. And and that was something that, you know, I picked up on really early and I figured out how to market. And then just began with computer tables. I had like computertable.com and I don't even know if I have this domain anymore.

Still. I was able to get like, some organic ranking. I started out on Yahoo stores and was the only platform really at the time. Otherwise you had to write your own website. There was no Shopify, there was no big commerce at the time. So that's kind of how I started out. But always listening to the customer and, you know, I do graphic images and, and put them up in magazine.

And really, you know, the magazine ad was what the internet is now, right? So we would run those ads and see if people were interested in the design or what we were doing, and we would just go from there and just listen to the customer. And, you know, that's, so I, I started out manufacturing because when I used to [00:07:00] import my products from, from China at the time, it'd be a lot of issues with them.

Then came from, you know, brought 'em from we moved it to Mexico and then it was. Same challenges. Then I said, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this operation here in the United States. And that's how the manufacturing began.

Edwin: now that's amazing and, and I love that how. Some of the folks who may be listening is like, you know, fail fast. Get your MVP out there, and maybe they, they can't appreciate you. Were doing it as well, but it was a bit a longer cycle, but it was the same. Same framework. Put an ad out there, sell something, listen to your customers.

Pivot. But really your story, Chris, is how you, even though you had the successful business already growing and you could scale within the fitness industry, you already was sniffing or recognizing. There's something brewing on this side. How do I get into there [00:08:00] even though I'm not a tech entrepreneur? Talk to me how you got those influences.

Was it from your current customers or was just being where you were and listening to people

Chris: I think listening to people and you know, even today, you know, we, we make more than office furniture and we made, you know, everything from mid-century furniture to, to make up vanities. But you know, in general watching the industry was really interesting, right? Because you have these big metal boxes with the CPU holder and when we began, monitors were very heavy, you know?

The, the newer generation doesn't realize that, but it was a ca, it was a tube, you know,

Edwin: C R

Chris: was a ct. That's what they called 'em back in the day. That's true. And you know, we early on kind of got into working with the hospitals and they had these big monitors that were extremely heavy. So we started making tables for them.

But you know, there's a few innovative people out there that were doing like, Training at the time. And I ended up working with a, a company that was locally in California and we started to make some tables for them [00:09:00] that help cameras. And then you learn a little bit about each person's business and we didn't really know where the computer industry was gonna go.

And they used to have these things called land racks. And they were basically a bunch of computers and it was just a big heavy shelf. And we made those for a while and, and then that entire shelf that was, you know, holding 13 computers or 12 or 14 computers, you know, basically goes down to nothing. Now it's one computer.

It can do all of that. And it's funny cuz there's even a cart, I think to this day on our website that has two CPU holders, like it holds two computers. And I was laughing cuz I was telling my team like, need to take that off like, you know. They people still go run it, but it was called a crash cart and basically it was two computers because you didn't run, you know, you didn't run two programs at the same time.

Like you can now, you can run several programs, so

Edwin: It's interesting and the lessons there is always listening and, [00:10:00] and working with, with those who are willing and to work with you as well. And, and, and you found some great niches, you know, with the hospitals and, and very specific needs that were complimentary. To the rise of computers, right?

Because this is something well beyond me, and I'm a computer engineer from the early two thousands too. So it's just like, oh wow, Chris, like in his company, they had a good little niche here bringing up and really, really growing that. So can you, I'm really keen, as you were growing the manufacturing and your business here, what was some of the challenge as a leader that you had to overcome?

Because I assume you were in the business a lot at that

Chris: Yeah, I mean, I am a hands on leader. I, I like, again, I like making things and that's usually dragging me into the, to the business on a regular basis. And I mean, as a leader you always have to be developing and I think. You have so many challenges along the way, especially as being a leader. So take away the skill sets and all [00:11:00] that running, you know, even a small organization and I think that, you know, a lot of people don't realize that the, the mom and pops and even the restaurants, you know, their challenges are just as grand as big companies and you know, and big companies, they have more layers of structure and training and, you know, SOPs on how they do things.

So, you know, those challenges always exist. What was really interesting for us is that we were manufacturing and we still do manufacturing California in Los Angeles. So, you know, at one point California did have a lot of manufacturing, but it doesn't now, and a lot of products are just imported in. So finding, you know, manufacturing leadership, And people that can run a plant floor, they can, you know, run a bunch of welders and, you know, people making things is a little more challenging cause you know, those are skills that are not, you know, no longer there.

And most of those guys have retired, so those leadership guys have retired. And then typically the ones that are around, you [00:12:00] know, they're gonna be with like an aerospace company getting paid of a lot of money, you know, and so those are the bigger challenges is finding these people that have the skills to go ahead and run a CNC router or, you know, program a laser. And at that time it was more challenging for us.

Edwin: Yeah, cuz I guess I assume if manufacturing was not so prevalent there, there's only just the small moms and pop c and c shops that are around and they may not have that leadership in house. So how did, how did you guys grow that leadership or that that know-how? Was it from the ground up or did you guys gotta get out and really, really headhunt?

Chris: Yeah, so we, we did grow from the ground up. I mean, early on when I was trying to. Learn how to manufacture. You know, there's no real, there is school, like there's great engineering schools like, you know, USC and ucla, Cal Poly, they have great programs, but you know, no one shows you how to make a product, right?

No one's like, Hey, here's the recipe. I mean, now you [00:13:00] can go on YouTube and see just about how to make anything, but you know, at that time there really wasn't anything. And a lot of times I was interviewing people and learning from those interviews, reading the resume. And this is what, you know, I tell any small business or even a developed business, right, is that, you know, run a good ad to bring in someone.

And at certain times I would run the ad knowing that I didn't have the money to hire the person, but I wanted to, you know, talk to 'em, learn, and then go, okay, you know, this is the person I'm gonna hire when, you know, I can pay that salary. And this is one of the best ways to learn in my opinion, because, you know, each time you read a resume, you're seeing where they work, what they did.

And providing their, you know, transparent and honest on their resume. You know, you can learn a lot from what's happening just by reading that resume and then either a, getting on the phone or meeting them. And that was one of the ways we actually learned. And, and then as you, you know, develop more in other place, you learn as your suppliers, so your, your reps that bring you material.[00:14:00]

You know, I, I used to not tell the supplier like what our brand name was because they're always talking like the rep will come in and they're like, yeah, well we sold so and so over here and they did a thousand units of this and they sold it to this one. And, and they're pretty much got, like, your entire business is out there like gossip wise.

But you learn a lot from them because they'll tell you like, Hey, this is how our customer uses this material, or they use this machine. So these are really great places for, for people to learn and develop their teams at, at any size company.

Edwin: Yeah, I love, I love, I love the business intelligence and the resourcefulness as, as well, right? Because it's, and you're right, I over 10 years ago, I did I did technical recruiting as well, and you really learn a lot. About someone's skill by talking with them. Right? And, and if you understand business or, or the way you grow a business, you'd be like, oh, I understand where this person could actually fit within a team.

And, and what, what makes them good is, is where they came from as well. And maybe some of the brands or the companies that they [00:15:00] worked with as well. That's, I love, I love how you guys did that and really run ads to really understand yourselves inside out. . I want to touch base. I guess when it comes to, I, I'm, I'm an engineer as well, but I, I, I learned that, you know, you, your organizations, you get interns from local colleges, you know, to work in the factory and really, To make a point, which I thought was really interesting cuz it reminded me when I was an engineer that you guys have three female engineers now.

Because when I was in engineering, and I think it's changed now, but at least in computer engineering 20 years ago there was literally like three or five women in the, in the whole bill, you know, the whole classroom. So can you, I'd love you to share about what's that, how is that like and how it's changing your culture as well.

Chris: Well, amazing engineers, you know, they're, they're everywhere and you have to develop 'em, but, you know, it's, it is a lot more exciting to have a lot more female engineers going in. You know, they're going in, they're, they're getting industrial engineering degrees. They're getting mechanical engineering degrees, and typically we always have maybe three, maybe four female [00:16:00] engineer.

And, you know, their skill set is the same. It all depends because what I do notice with like engineers is that, you know, like accountants, they'll try to figure out where they want to be in a company or an industry. So, you know, c like accountants, like intern accountants will go work at the big five and then they'll figure out what they want to do.

Or they'll come to a company like ours and then work for a while and then they'll be like, yeah, I want to. You know, working in this type of industry. And it's the same thing with engineers, but, you know we have a lot of great I'm working with an engineer right now and she's doing a great job and with design and, you know, I, I like, I'll give the direction and hopefully they can come up with a little bit of design as well.

And that's always exciting. But yeah, we've had some really great people come through the company and even move on to do amazing things. And one of my engineers, which I absolutely still love, she's. She went on to like building houses, and she does phenomenally well doing that. She applied her skill there and does real estate with her husband and, [00:17:00] and they're, they're crushing.

Edwin: Yeah, it's, it's, it's always interesting to, to get new. Diverse people within the organization. It, it helps the culture grow. It helps get different skill sets or different knowledge even for those who are, who are in there because internships come and go as well. One thing, one thing I wanted to mention, I wanted to ask you, Chris, that I read about that there's, there's this program that basically you provide employees with transportation to and from work.

It's basically an employee courtesy car. Can you tell me how you came up with that?

Chris: Yeah, so that was like, that was pretty much 2013 for about three or four years. And had picked up a te I had picked up a Prius Toyota Prius. And basically the idea was that, you know, this is one of the big challenges for people, right? When they have their car breaks. you know, it's a, it's a challenge.

They could drop the car off and I was like, you know, let's just have a company car and talk to the insurance company. I'm like, Hey, look. And then we, we had made it [00:18:00] like with a company logo on it and we had like branding on it and it was, it had set on it, this company Courtesy car, and it was really effective because the idea was that anybody in the company didn't matter whether they came from the office of the factory.

They could go ahead and use this car for, you know, two or three, three days or whatever they needed to, to go ahead and get their car fixed and, and get their transportation. And it was, it was a good program. It lasted a long time. And it was well used. And we had one person in our marketing department who was a girl, and she was gonna buy a she, she's buying a car and she was using it for a while, like two or three weeks I think. And like the day before her new car came in, she totaled that one. And I was like, okay. I'm like, maybe it's the end of the program. And, you know, I was like, all right, I think we made more money from the insurance company on it than what we paid for. And I was like, okay. It was good, but I would do it again actually with a Tesla maybe.

Edwin: yeah, for sure. I mean, to, to me, and what I hear as well is that it's, it's one of those small. [00:19:00] Company initiatives where you give this benefit, this perk that allows, you know, the people in the organization to talk about. Their company, right? It's like, look at this car I got from Versa to use for a couple of days.

Like, that's like, that's like people in a LinkedIn posting like their welcome kit when they start somewhere. Right? But like,

Chris: is always good.

Edwin: you know, look, look what we do. We got a car to use. Like, we got the, we got the newest Tesla to use. Right? I mean, I think, I mean, it's a great initiative. Like, it, it, it's, it's something like, I would encourage for sure for you guys to continue if it was something of value still,

Chris: think about it. I mean, I think Teslas are hard to get right now, so maybe

Edwin: Oh yeah.

Chris: name on the list.

Edwin: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. I guess for me and the business leadership community you know, understanding where you came from, Chris, all the different challenges you had as a business leader, as an entrepreneur, as in growing I'm curious if you could share what maybe some of the challenges or some of the things that you are personally [00:20:00] working on to continually to grow as a business leader.

Chris: So as a business leader, I think no matter who you're looking at, you know, you continually have to be learning and you know, I'm gonna do audiobooks like once a week, I'm gonna do an audiobook and then communication's key, right? Cause as a leader, if your communication's not good, you can easily disengage your team members.

And you know, you have times where they're watching your facial expressions and they're like, he said this. And you're like, well, I don't, I don't think I said that, but like, your expression may have it. And, you know, it doesn't, you know, again, and it's not just a small business thing. It's like communication has to be on point every day.

And, you know, in a leader, especially in a smaller company or you know, managing a lot of people, they're watching your emotions. They're watching what's going on. You know, a lot of times they'll tell like, Hey, if you're in a bad mood, we're in a bad mood. Right? And they're already texting people on, you know, other side of the building, Hey, he's in a bad mood, you know, and all these things happen.

But you know what, what I think every leader should do is you [00:21:00] constantly want to be working on your communication and, and being, you know, conscientious of how you're coming across to your team members. And it's challenging Some days you got, you know, bombs going off and things happening, and you go one right after another, and.

You know, you gotta really reach down and, and try to like, keep your composure and you know, these are, these are things in smaller businesses too that, that do arise. But always, always looking for books and, and reading them.

Edwin: Awesome. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I love how you have the goal of one audio book per week. So when are you listening to your audio books, by the way?

Chris: Right now, I'm listening to the 12 week year, and I really like this because it's really saying, Hey, don't annualize your goals. And, you know, really break it up into 12 weeks. So I'm, I'm halfway through that book and I think that that's a, a good read for some of the people out there. You know, it's, it's basically compressing some of your goals and making them shorter and more visual for the team as well.

Edwin: Oh, that's amazing. [00:22:00] And, and when do, when do you listen to him? Is it during your commute

Chris: I drive to work, yes. Back and forth to work to the

Edwin: That's the best time. Like you're, you're, you're definitely, yeah. , you're doubling up on your productivity skill there. For sure. Yeah. This, this, this has been great. Chris, are you able to share maybe, ideally a final thought, observa observation, typically like some type of actionable recommendation you could share with maybe the growing business leader, the entrepreneur who's in the trenches right now?

Something, some, some piece of wisdom for us.

Chris: I think one of the, the things that I love and still use and we use extensively is it's called Google Studio. And it's a free dashboard from Google that's extremely easy to use and you can basically API out your data from either QuickBooks or from, you know, as we use sap. But this is a dashboard and you can build it out and make it whatever you want.

You can put pictures up there and this is a really good way for all business owners to, you know, put a KPI up there for their team [00:23:00] members. So that people can track it, and it's called Google Studio. And basically what you wanna do is figure out what's that goal that you want your team to focus on. And you can go ahead and create a scoreboard or a data sheet and put that up.

Just buy a flat screen TV for 300 bucks, a 50 inch or whatever they have, and then put it up. And this is a really great way to keep your team engaged and everybody's on the same page.

Edwin: That's a great tip. Google Studio. I'm gonna put the link in the show notes and obviously all, all the things that Chris and I have talking about some resources, but I'm like, oh, why don't my team have this right

Chris: it's great and it's free. Cause you know, the, the usually dashboards are like a 25 to $50,000 investment software and they make you

jump through the hoops with the contract and, you know, it might say it's in beta, but it's been in be for eight years and it still works. And, you know, definitely use that.

That's a good.

Edwin: I love that. Chris, to close, can you [00:24:00] let us know we could find more, more information about you, your business, or anything else you wanna share with us today?

Chris: So there's not too much information about me. You're, you're getting the best of it right here today. But you know, versa, desk is one of our brands versus tables. You know, here's where you can see some of the products we make. And by all means, if somebody wants to, you know, get me on LinkedIn or DM me or whatever, they're, they're more than welcome to, and I'll help out where I.

Edwin: Awesome, Chris. Thank you for joining us on the Business Leadership Podcast today.

Chris: All right, Edwin. Thanks so much for having me.

I enjoy talking

Edwin: That's it busy. There's. Thank you for joining me. On another episode of the business leadership podcast, this was episode number 181 with. Chris Laudadio For more information about Chris Brisa or any other resources that we shared. Please go to https://thebusinessleadereship.com/181, or simply click or slide into the show notes directly in the app that you're listening to now.

And listen, if you haven't done so yet, please give [00:25:00] the show. Follow. Leave a rating. And, and a short comment and review it actually helps the show reach other business leaders. Like you. And it wouldn't take more than two minutes. I would appreciate I'm grateful. And I do read the comments. That you share. So thank you for those who have left it.

This episode was brought to you by Slingshot communication. The business leaders preferred cloud phone service. What I really like about Slingshot is that I'm able to grow 100 X by allowing the system. In place to transform my business and my life. I have the ability to have a dedicated business SMS, and it's changed the game.

I contact my clients via text messaging. Like I'm sure like all of you. But during off hours, I turn off the app. So I could be present with my family, my friends, and my colleagues to learn more. Please go to the business leadership.com/s M S. Until next time. Thank you. Do your best and have a [00:26:00] 100 X. Day.

Salli: Thank you for listening to the Business Leadership Podcast with Edwin Fr.