Greg Owens 21:15
And then she gets disappointed when she sends it over to me. And I’m like, I don’t like it.
Katrina Stephenson 21:22
happens because I
Greg Owens 21:28
it was funny, that idea about the postcards we were sending out for Christmas with the little elves. And I don’t know where that idea came from. But it didn’t look right. And I’m like, what’s wrong with this picture? Oh, they’re missing masks. And you went and put masks on the seven little floors? Yeah, my picture. Just any mask? Yeah, we had it. And I had to go to go with like, I want some with some really good bling, Egyptian masks.
Mark Schmidt 21:58
And so I’m thinking I’m trying to find where do I get a sample or picture of something to look at Egyptian?
Katrina Stephenson 22:04
Yeah.
Mark Schmidt 22:06
I finally figured out Oh, I use the keyword belly dancer. And then then there’s a mask that Greg likes the belly dancer mask.
Greg Owens 22:15
And that’s because I got that idea from my friend Renee who actually had like a belly dancer mask. And she was she was sporting it. You know, it’s like a useless mask, right? It’s all bling and all this stuff. Right? It’s not gonna capture anything, but she was like, just wearing that into the grocery store. Exactly. Wow. Totally. She was her way of rebelling against like what she thought was, you know, some silly rules, right? You won’t get into politics, but I appreciated the like, you know, the fun that she was having with that?
Mark Schmidt 22:51
Definitely. Oh, absolutely.
Greg Owens 22:53
Yeah. What else? What, uh, what other things are what other opportunities just seeing? I know, you you showed you showed us the six foot spacing, stickers that people are sticking on the ground? I think those are mostly stuck on the ground of where I’ve seen them, right. We’ve got them. We’ve seen them in all kinds of locations. You got the one way things? What other opportunities did you start to see? And have you figured out using this equipment or or anything else?
Mark Schmidt 23:20
Well, a couple couple of sit here. The what this printer that I have that, you know, it’s literally it’s an inkjet printer. It looks just like an inkjet printer you might have on your on your desk at your office. Except it’s five feet tall, 11 feet wide, you know, 10 feet the other direction so it can print on things up to two inches thick. So you know we could we could take the front door of your office, take the doorknobs off print a huge picture of Greg without his tooth on it and put it back up there for you.
Greg Owens 23:51
That would scare the homeless people away. like doing it literally. It’s been funny having a missing tooth because I go in San Francisco and people approached me you know panhandling and that kind of stuff. And they look at me and they’re like, Whoa, that’s a problem. I’m not going near that guy with the missing tooth.
Greg Owens 24:09
Go ahead, Katrina.
Katrina Stephenson 24:10
Well, I hear you say the story and it’s like, why are you wearing your mask? And how can one person can see that? That that tooth? Oh, no,
Greg Owens 24:17
no,
Greg Owens 24:18
I don’t always wear my mask when I’m like walking down, like looking at a gala in San Francisco. And there’s nobody around. Okay. Except for the homeless person that was coming up. I mean, I was literally in South San Francisco. We were painting this building. And there was another reason was like people don’t don’t even talk to me right without when they when they see me. homeless encampment next to this building. We’re painting over graffiti, right. This was for Zoosk. And we’re painting over to the graffiti and the next day we come back and it’s all graffiti again, right? Like it’s just it’s crazy how fast I even called the client and said like, we I don’t know what you want to do, but this seems useless to keep painting these things oh geez.
Mark Schmidt 25:06
Yeah, but, you know, here’s another little fun thing you know, it’s like, this is a magnet, you know, I can, you know, I printed I printed this thing on my printer with the way the my new printer with with magnet material and then again laminated nicely so I could put this on the side of my car if I wanted to run around.
Greg Owens 25:25
That’s good to know we should put some on your new BMW Katrina.
Mark Schmidt 25:29
Here is for this is a you know, like, now it’s like a quarter inch piece of Wow. So this thing prints really beautiful pictures. And this is a this I guess it is the this month is International Women’s Day coming up here.
Greg Owens 25:48
So congratulations Katrina
Katrina Stephenson 25:50
There you go? Yes.
Mark Schmidt 25:55
Did a bunch of these.
Mark Schmidt 25:59
You know, actually, you know, getting this equipment or during graduation season last year was very timely, because we printed yard signs, like crazy. All the different people graduating different schools. So there were hundreds of these all over Marin County. And then and then and then came the political season. And we started you know, printing political yard signs. So this equipment thing, you know, came in handy. One of one of our customers is a made a nice donation to a nonprofit organization. So I had to that’s the company Crystal Geyser in
Mark Schmidt 26:40
For the photo, ah,
Greg Owens 26:42
yeah, exactly. Crystal Geyser $1,000 donation night.
Mark Schmidt 26:46
Exactly. So yeah, exactly. So that’s, you know, that’s I’m saying you can, you know, this is huge. And you can make, you know, I made a 25 foot wide banner that goes on the the local organisations who want the kids to play sports, youth sports, the hashtag let them play CA is uh So, they’ve been trying to get kids, you know, to be able to play and sports and so I saw on it, all right, I can put a 25 foot banner, so I started putting this banner, and I, I started you know, you know,
Greg Owens 27:20
it doesn’t fit in your machine? Well, but no, it
Mark Schmidt 27:23
does it, you know, it’s what four feet wide and 25. So if you go 24 foot long direction, this manner and like, right, this is, you know, in my, my sheet of paper, or whatever the banner material is about, you know, a little bit four and a half feet wide. And it’s so just fine. And why learn the importance of lining the paper properly are the banner material, because if it’s off just by a little bit 25 feet later, the papers veering off the edge of the thing. Oh, no, like mid printing, I’m trying to figure out which it doesn’t like to touch it once you started so right. So it was only maybe next time I’ll get a little whiter paper so I don’t just like 10 right off the edge. But hey, you know, you learn as you go. We should be
Katrina Stephenson 28:04
hearing about this on your Tiktok mark. Well, yeah. How have your kids help you with with CNC machines for a printing company on your Tiktok boom,
Mark Schmidt 28:14
there we go. I’m watching because
Katrina Stephenson 28:17
I love watching things print. I don’t know what it is.
Mark Schmidt 28:19
Is this kind of amazing? This thing. Too bad. I can’t show you guys the videos right now because I take videos of this stuff
Greg Owens 28:25
working in it’s pretty cool. How you can send something Katrina, we can put them up on our Instagram and that kind of stuff. Katrina runs that part. Yes, yes. Yeah, no, that’s exciting. And he got me thinking about a couple ideas. Right? We’re gonna need some more yard signs for sure. And I can we can we can chat about that too. Because at some point we’re going to desert you know, and then I like the idea of having stickers but I don’t know what we do with them except for sending them to customers but we could do fun things in a way that’s a new gift idea for next year’s Christmas gifts you just get a
Katrina Stephenson 29:02
really good idea
Mark Schmidt 29:03
you know, it’s like you know the the the I voted stickers that you get, you know, you can get the I got a sticker from McCarthy Painting and I need to call them back to accept the job sticker.
Greg Owens 29:15
Right, right.
Greg Owens 29:17
That’s super cool. We did some kind of magnets for refrigerators once I don’t remember what it was for. Oh, I
Katrina Stephenson 29:23
know we did we did our group photo of the of the bridge and I
Greg Owens 29:27
Oh, yeah. 50
Katrina Stephenson 29:29
magnets. We have some at the office still a bunch left if anyone out there would like some but it
Greg Owens 29:34
was more. It wasn’t really for customers. It was more for the painters too right? like we sent them all home with the painters so that they had like this cool. We did a photo shoot mark down at the underneath the Golden Gate Bridge by a museum. Oh, yeah, it’s gorgeous. Right? You printed our postcards? Yeah, it was it was a super fun because we do we do work down underneath there and we were down there with a lift and all that. So we were like wow, we need to Get the whole company down here, you know, and take a photo. And I’d love to do that again, at some point, maybe in the same spot or maybe you notice, but there’s so many beautiful spots in Moran. You know, and it’s is unbelievable place to live and work as you know. Oh,
Mark Schmidt 30:14
yeah, it’s beautiful.
Greg Owens 30:15
Yes, exactly. Yeah. So it’s a lifestyle living a rented lifestyle living. Yeah. Right. But But still, it’s an awesome lifestyle. And I and CNC machines have come a long way. I know, my brother, my brother. He built one. And I helped them with it back like, probably 15 years ago or so now. 10 years ago, 10 years ago, he built one and the plans were online because he was looking at paying for one and it was like 50 grand, like starting price. No bells and whistles whatsoever. And this isn’t even as like nice as what yours can do. And but it was what was amazing is that somebody put all the plans up for free on on the internet, right? And so you can you can just download the plans and my brother can build anything. It’s crazy. And it was amazing. Like my cabinets are built in the house. I Oh, and he built like the cabinets and did all this sort of cool stylish stuff on the doors and that kind of thing. That’s fun. Yeah. Yeah, super fun. It’s super fun to watch him like in that creative mode.
Greg Owens 31:20
For sure.
Greg Owens 31:21
What do you do to tap into that creativity for you Mark? like what’s like, a niche. I mean, this is definitely it. clients come to you with ideas problems are solving. I know for me sometimes like Katrina’s has seen me do this, it’s like I can’t think creatively like now like it’s not possible. But then there’s other times where it’s like, you know, it’s like, ideas of pouring out of me. Right? Do you have any go to ways of building that muscle of creativity? Yeah,
Mark Schmidt 31:47
that’s an interesting question. You know, I don’t I just just love thinking that way, then. So I think, you know, like my, my so, my relatives and aunts and uncles and grandparents, they were like, in the kind of artist industry, so to speak. They’re very creative thinkers. And so it just, it just kind of there for me. So I love tapping into it and just brainstorming and coming up with ideas and and
Greg Owens 32:09
can you can draw a picture of a rabbit, and it’s right.
Mark Schmidt 32:14
I’m a stick figure kind of guy.
Greg Owens 32:18
That’s usually my test. And somebody like innate they’re born with this ability Katrina can can draw a picture of a rabbit
Katrina Stephenson 32:25
I try
Greg Owens 32:29
99% of the people that look at it will be like, yeah, that’s a rabbit. I draw a picture of rabbit. And 8% of the people looked at it are like what.
Greg Owens 32:44
Yeah, yeah. For sure. So part of this podcast bargain, as we, as we come here to closing and stuff, what we’ve been doing is like also exploring different places where people can work and have a career and a really meaningful career, right? Because, but they don’t know they exist, right? There’s also there’s a lot of people that want to like just work for Facebook, or want to work for Google and, and want to be in that sort of realm and want to be a computer programmer, but they don’t realize, like, there’s all these other career opportunities, like working for a painting company, or being a facilities manager, like inside a major facility and walking through the building and, you know, problem solving and being this sort of generalist, right? Or like your company being in the printing industry, right? And which, which speak to like, how, what are the benefits of working in a company like yours? And then like, how people can get involved or learn more about doing that, and having a career and what you guys do?
Mark Schmidt 33:44
Yeah, well, you know, what’s really fun about this particular industry is, is, as with a lot of industries, technology is changing it. And there is a lot of opportunity to you know, because we have people here working on graphic design, and you know, the the customer service aspect of, you know, kind of like what you do Katrina, your report, we have those jobs here and, and as our employees, I mean, I’ve had, I have a lot of our employees have been here for many, many years, and they keep learning new technologies. And, and they, you know, everybody enjoys learning. And so there’s plenty of, you know, internally here, even though it’s, you know, we’re a printing business that does direct mail marketing, and, and now we’re getting into like, you see the big printing and the big format printing, and we’re also doing some things in the fulfilment area where we’re storing product for customers and shipping it out as they need. So it’s almost like a fledgling amazon.com kind of thing. Where I have stuff in the warehouse and we ship it out as customer orders come in for them. And, but there’s lots of technology, in growth in all these areas. Some of the things that we’re learning right now I’m spending time right now, exploring and learning is is linking direct mail with social media. And the US Postal Service informed visibility programs so that when a postcard goes out, it also unleashes social media activity to follow those postcards and things. So there’s, you know, I’m kind of exploring how that works and trying to develop new products in that area. And, and so there’s, there’s a lot continues to be a lot to learn. And, you know, I, you know, if you’re interested in, I think with a lot of different companies, if you’re interested in in helping companies adapt and grow with technology, there’s lots of opportunity in companies that you may think, don’t really have opportunity. There’s a lot out there, and there’s a lot here to work with. So that’s what keeps me you know, here I am, you know, somebody who was a chemical engineer, an MBA and from UC Berkeley, and I own a little of a consulting company, what the hell? Well, it’s actually, there’s lots of technology, a lot of interesting things to work on, that challenge the brain and challenge those creativity, creative juices, and I share that with all the employees here. And we all have a good time learning new tricks.
Greg Owens 36:06
Yeah, and I think some of the massive benefits I see working for a small company is you can actually like, I get to see the boss, right, you get to talk to them. And a lot of times you have, everybody has to wear multiple different hats. I know Katrina in my company has to wear multiple different hats. It’s not the same. It’s not the same thing every single day, right? Like, there’s like, projects to be done different people can tackle those projects that want that have an interest or want to learn about it. And and if they have an interest in something, I’m always like, Yeah, go for it. It sounds great. Like one with that idea. Right? Let’s see what what that develops. And that’s super fun. How do you how do you? What do you recommend to somebody that’s looking at a career in printing, direct mail, fulfilment, DNC, all this other stuff that you’re doing there? What do you what do you suggest, like for them to do is or books is there? What’s your ideas around getting involved getting seeing, seeing what’s there? Well, you
Mark Schmidt 37:03
know, with kind of with any industry, I think an important thing is to get out and meet people. And if you have interest in, in whether it’s, you know, some of the things that we do here, or some of the things that happened in McCarthy Painting, you know, you go out and meet some folks who are in, in those industries. And it’s that is that networking that really helps people, you know, launch into new careers and new opportunities. And having a knowledge base on a particular industry is is a helpful, you know, resume builder when you’re applying for one of those jobs. But you know, there are a lot of very talented people out there who might know absolutely nothing about printing, or nothing about painting. And, and because they are so enthusiastic, friendly, creative, and, you know, and willing to put themselves out there, you find that, that you can teach them what they need to know about painting or printing. And then, you know, you have an employee that is a rock star, and they knew nothing about this going into it. So you know, my biggest advice in that area is just put yourself out there and go for it. And you can find ways to work into lots of different industries, whether you know about the industry or not,
Greg Owens 38:27
yeah, that’s, that is so true. And I have a feeling we’re gonna have a lot of listeners very confused about why are we talking to another printing company versus a painting company? Because those two words are pretty close, right? Really printing and painting but completely different things.
Greg Owens 38:48
Anything else that the Unicorn, the Unicorn Group is doing new things that you’re getting into?
Mark Schmidt 38:54
Well, I guess the thing I’m scratching the surface right now is, is looking at the linkages between direct mail marketing and digital media marketing and social media and, and trying to, you know, because the post office has some new offerings in that area. So we’re learning how to make it all work and get to know how you know how best to do that. And as we learn about that, you know, I’ll be I’ll be sharing that with my customers too.
Greg Owens 39:22
Yeah. Is that is that like something in it that’s electronic? That’s like saying where the postage went to where that mailer went to or is it like a barcode on it and the client has to do something?
Mark Schmidt 39:35
Yeah, they’re the fundamental basis for this is the barcode that we print on each mail piece can actually be serialized or the serial number and a male owner number and, and then that little barcode can get tracked. That like is similar to how like ups might track their packages, but not exactly It’s similar but not exactly the same. And then and then that can get you can through through a computer’s be able to look into the, the where those pieces are and see your pieces get delivered on, you know, on a dashboard of the computer, and then combine those deliveries with, you know, electronic marketing and you know, they can work together and, and properly timed. So there’s that’s kind of the basis for how it works is is the is called the intelligent mail barcode is where the post office calls it. And we put those on each each of your mail pieces, and then we put the The next step is using the serial numbers to link it back to something that’s usable from a digital marketing.
Greg Owens 40:46
Yeah, that sounds great, because I could see where that could be super beneficial, because we’re always trying to figure out like, the how much it costs to acquire a new client. Right, right. And we but we don’t always know where the client came from. So we do a lot of different things marketing wise, and one of them is sending out postcards. But we’re not always, you know, we can’t always tell like, because like, a lot of times the client will just be like, Oh, I, you know, I got something in the mail. But we didn’t know which mail piece right. And we do some of that with phone numbers, like we’ve been messing with different phone numbers to be able to track things. But then when it comes to like Google searches and things like that, or if they saw our job signs, and then they saw our van, and then they got the postcard, which was which one was the thing that made them call. Right. Right. And you know, and
Mark Schmidt 41:29
it often isn’t one particular thing, it’s going to be a combination of everything. And that’s where it’s like, you know, I mean, that’s why they call it you know, marketing, yeah, marketing programmes. It’s, it’s not about just running one Superbowl ad and, and, you know, people see it, and, you know, you get everybody in the country to see it, but then they forget about it. So by having repetition in marketing, you’re able to reinforce your message. And, you know, sometimes it takes three or four times to, you know, get those messages to sink in. And, and that’s, that’s where the marketing plan, you know, and working, working in different types of marketing tactics together to make it all work and bring new customers in.
Greg Owens 42:14
Yeah, that’s well said. That’s Well said. Well, Mark, this has been a blast to be able to talk to you in depth on this. I know we haven’t. We haven’t been able to have these kinds of conversations in a while. I know we painted your house, but we were in and out of there. Sure. Yeah. You’re hardly there, actually. So yeah, really, really? Absolutely. wonderful to have you on our podcast here.
Mark Schmidt 42:38
And you can you can remember that McCarthy Painting is?
Katrina Stephenson 42:42
Yes, best in Marin.
Mark Schmidt 42:47
congratulations. You guys.
Greg Owens 42:50
Always if we don’t know, we haven’t we haven’t won this year yet. We’re for 2021. Right? Like,
Mark Schmidt 42:56
if you want plenty of you’ve won plenty of time. So we want a bunch of
Katrina Stephenson 42:59
I agree with you. We want to win this year? So.
Greg Owens 43:04
So Mark, and how do people find out more information about you? What’s the best way?
Mark Schmidt 43:11
Well, you know, in this electronic world, there’s plenty of information on a unicorn, print mail.com because we print in mail, and I also have a very memorable phone number 415-492-2222. 492-2222.
Greg Owens 43:32
That’s great. That’s great. And it’s Mark with the Unicorn Printing Group. And this has been an episode of the Watching Paint Dry podcast. Thank you so much. That has been great having you on here. And hopefully we get to have coffee or lunch at some point soon.
Mark Schmidt 43:49
Looking forward to it. Yeah, thank you.
Outro 44:03
Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.