Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Edward Garza

Curt Anderson  00:00

Dun dun dun. You know, Damon, I need intro music you know, because it’s just me talking so Hey, happy Monday, everybody. Welcome to Manufacturing Monday motivation right after this wonderful, incredible amazing Thanksgiving holiday Damon, my friend. How are you? Dude? How’s everything going over there doing well doing well? Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better. I know. You know, now Hey, I’m gonna give a congratulations to our dear friend Jean Jones and the Boilermakers for hitting the big 10 championship. So how about a round of applause for Purdue way to go for our our friends in great State of Indiana. Congratulations.

Gene Jones  00:33

Thank you very much, Michigan is next on the list.

Curt Anderson  00:37

Next victims go down. So Hey, Nicole Donnelly. Happy Monday. How are you my friend?

Nicole Donnelly  00:42

I am doing great. I have had so much turkey this week. I am just full of turkey and cranberry sauce and I’m ready to rock and roll.

Curt Anderson  00:50

Oh, hey, I know you’re gonna be gobble gobbling on our program today. So we have a ton to discover here with our dear friend Edward Garza. Edward from our popular in Indiana. Edward. Happy Monday. How are you today? My friend? I’m

Edward Garza  01:02

doing great. I’m doing great. Hope everyone else is doing fine after the fall. Well, I had four days. So that’s four days that comes once a year.

Curt Anderson  01:11

That right? It’s enjoyable. And as a manufacturer and as a an entrepreneur, you know, those days? They don’t come very often do they? Yeah. Man, you take those days when you can grab them, right? Absolutely. So hey, I’m gonna give us so we’ve got hey, we’ve got folks popping in. Drop your comments, let us know that you’re here. I’d love for you guys connect with our friend Jean from the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Nicole, Edward. We have a lot to cover here today. So I’m going to kick things off. Hey, how about we got Whitney here today. Whitney. Good morning to you. Happy Monday. Wonderful. Dan Biggers in the house here. We’ve got Diane is here. And pretax. So hey, Diane, Happy Monday to you. So guys, let’s kick things off. So first off, I want to go I want to talk about how important you know through COVID Free COVID We would have never had this conversation. I’ve had the honor and privilege of spending time with each of the either of our panelists here today in person. And so I just want to talk about how great it is when you can take these online virtual relationships and turn them into in person. Damon, you and your wife, Jean. I know we’re gonna be shocked by this. Damon let me stay at his house for a weekend. Goodness gracious. I don’t know what he was thinking. But I stayed at his house

Gene Jones  02:23

that he still showed up today. And we’re still friends

Curt Anderson  02:26

you know? And so Jean, you and I met in Chicago a couple months ago, Edward I’ve had the honor privilege taking a tour of your manufacturing facility. Nicole you and I’ve been together and what the great thing is you guys are workout junkies I’ve seen Jean I’ve seen you hitting the gym. Nicole you and I’ve worked out you are just a maniac working out Damon I’ve seen yours Edward with Edward Tell these guys What’s your workout regimen

Edward Garza  02:51

it’s real simple, because I only have about 510 minutes a day. But I try to crank out 40 to 50 Pull Ups and as many push ups during in my little office a day but that’s about it. I wish I could get cardio when but yeah it’s that’s my workout day

Curt Anderson  03:14

well I’ll take when you meet Edward he’s just you know Jean of you guys are just so fit. I just think what’s important here, we could actually have a full session just on fitness on Main St. You know, Edward, you’re talking about, you know, taking that family time this you know, nice four day weekend, spending that quality time and as you know, as an entrepreneur, it is just a little bit stressful. And having that balance and as far as like exercising and I just I’ve had the honor and privilege of working out with everybody on this stage here one or in checking out you know, Edwards facility so I wanted to just give a shout out there but Edward let’s talk about L popular. So popular is a family business third generation founded started in 1925. Can you please just give us a little background on your company? Your your your grandfather started it. Let’s let’s get a little background on your company there.

Edward Garza  03:58

Okay, so my grandfather migrated from Mexico 19. What we think that things are a little sketchy because it’s hard to get a lot of documented information. We believe he came into United States back in 1920. border crossing information, it shows he was very active going back and forth. He did own a business down in San Antonio area for a little bit. It come up north he started a business in 1925 and East Chicago, Indiana, which is what used to be a strong steel mill environment. Sure, I know so there was a lot of Mexicans are working in the steel mills, but there was no Mexican food. And that was sort of his forte, so he started manufacturing, just a small handful of products. And those products are still manufactured today. So He was into making treasom, a mole a sauce and a hot chocolate. So it’s a, you can imagine a hot chocolate in a block. And he was also making Kessel fresco. So the only items we don’t make today’s a castle fresco. But interestingly enough, even though I had afford a vacation, I guess, I was down in Central Indiana talking with the Amish. Because they’re building a cheese factory, and they’re looking for someone to distribute Mexican cheese. So I was talking with them and looking at some machinery down there. And so maybe if things work out, I may get back into the cheese distribution business. So just to make a long story short, my grandfather would make these products in his storefront. And then he would go out on the corners of Chicago and and actually interested in Chicago on the corners and sell food. That’s how it was done back in the day. Well, as time went on, he had four sons. And they became, they were involved in the business. They started with a wholesale Mexican food company. So they were up to about four to 500 items, a lot of them were imported, lot of them were also private labeled under the brand and popularity. As time went on, they were they basically were really focused on the city of Chicago. By 1998, my grandfather passed away his four sons took over the business. And as time continued, they, the brothers started to sell their shares, ultimately to my father. So in 1980, when my father became sole owner, my brother and I became, started working with my father in this business by the euro, we continue down that path until about 2002. And that’s when I took over the business. I laid, I laid everything on the table, and I analyze it and I came to a conclusion that the best and easiest and fastest way to get old is to continue this business model. Because it was a lot of drivers, a lot of warehouse people office people production, sales, I can go on and on and on. And I decided to really focus on what the really what the Hallmark item of the company is, and that was Teresa. So my my goal was to open up a USDA Meat Plant and start to go beyond just the region of the Chicagoland area. So that’s been the focus ever since. And so today we have distribution in approximately 30 some odd states, we we don’t saturate those states. But the idea is that we continue to grow in all those markets, which is what we’re currently doing. I am also looking at and this is where we’re gene came into play is the Purdue offered different opportunities with grants. And we apply for a a meat and poultry processing grant. And that’s how sort of how I got involved with, with jeans program at Purdue. And so today, the ideas, how do I grow this business? And one way that we’re looking at is to expand our facility. And that was part of the grant was how do we use those funds to expand our footprint and also look at investment of equipment. In turn, that’s going to do a lot for bringing in more employees being able to pay better wages. It’ll do a lot for us. And so that’s currently the process that men

Curt Anderson  09:10

Alright, fantastic. So again, guys, if you’re just joining us, happy Monday, hope you had an amazing, wonderful holiday long weekend. drop us a note, let us know that you’re here. We would love for you to connect with Nicole. We have Jean Jones from the Purdue MEP, and regarding the fact that the not founder, owner and president of our popular so Jean, we’re talking to you from the Purdue MEP for folks out there today. Can you please share with everybody if they’re not familiar with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and more specifically, the Purdue MEP just your a little bit what is the MEP and what’s going on at Purdue?

Gene Jones  09:44

Yeah, thanks, Kurt. That’s a great story from Edward and really enjoy hearing it. Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership our customers our small to medium manufacturers in the state of Indiana. We focus on On any, essentially any service that will make small businesses in Indiana more effective and more efficient, moving to advanced equipment, as, as Edward describe, helping clients connect with funding sources that help them achieve their, their goals, I think Edward was referring to the state of Indiana’s manufacturing readiness grant that is, you know, that is something that’s coming from the state. And we helped him put together a proposal on and to four capital equipment. And I think the state of Indiana was matching 5050 on that capital equipment. So, you know, kudos to, you know, our great state of Indiana to help small businesses like L pop you are advanced. And so, you know, essentially not only produce MEP, but the, the 50. Other there are 51 MPs in the nation and 50 other MEPs in the nation, they bring expertise to a small business that a small business doesn’t need or particularly have on staff continuously. So when when that when that expertise is needed, whether it’s lean quality leadership, how to use collaborative robots, automation, whatever type of advanced skill set is required. We bring that to the to the company to help them for that defined period of time.

Curt Anderson  11:31

Absolutely. And we’ve got nice comment here from Dan bigger saying, Hey, I love working with MPs, and they are great resources we agree 100%. And so, alright, so guys, again, I’m gonna give a shout out to our dear friend Jean Jones, Navy man served our country probably for many years. So Jean, thank you for your service. Great job. And so it’s an honor, privilege and relationship working with gene. Edward, I want to come back to you my friend you talked about you know, so grandfather started the business in the 1920s came here and just think about the fearlessness that grandpa had to come to a new country. You know, maybe you know, second language and work in the streets of Chicago, in Chicago in Indiana, and just delivering amazing, incredible product. Now you’ve shared with me an a wonderful story that I’d love for you to share with everybody. When Edward was nine years old watching Saturday morning cartoons like we all did back in the 60s 70s. Damon, I know we sat there watching hours of those great Saturday morning cartoons. But Edward, you took a little different direction than most nine year olds, you knew it was in you. It was in your blood. You want to be an entrepreneur, can you share what was going on? One particular Saturday morning? You’re watching cartoons, and somehow the entrepreneurial bug hits you. Can you share that story with everybody?

Edward Garza  12:45

Yeah, so I had an older brother. He’s about a year and a half older. And I was and so he always, obviously got the first opportunities on everything. So my dad asked him if he wanted to make some money on the weekends, and he said, Yeah, so um, he wants to work, mixing spices. But after about, I don’t know, six months or so it got I think he got bored with the idea. But every two weeks he he had a check. Now it wasn’t much money back then. God knows what it was. It could have been $20 $30 and a check. But to me, that was like winning the lottery. So when one morning we’re watching cartoons, and I knew my brother was supposed to get ready to go to work. But he just was laying on the couch. And my dad looked at him and says, aren’t you ready to go to work? And he said, you know, he was just humming. Basically not really wanting to go and my dad looked at me and said, Do you want to make some money? I said, let’s go. And so we took off and that’s where my life started was mixing spices. So the company makes a trestle blend. And part of that blend, what we call our secret green spice blend is a combination of about 12 different spices and only family blends that particular a part of the blend. And so that’s basically what I did on Saturdays. I made that that blend, but um, yeah, it’s it’s just, it’s been in me to continue. It’s, I think I mentioned this to Kurt. Last year, I had turned 59 And I sat there and I thought boy, I started nine years old. I’ve been in this for 50 years. And the company will be celebrating 98 years. Jen is January so I thought boy, I’ve been in this for longer than half the history history of the company. Which you know, for second you, you know, and I still I believe I still have a lot of life left in me so it’s Some, yes, it’s an interesting journey. But it’s you don’t, you don’t think about it, you just do it, you get up every day you do what you do. But you don’t think about the history now. That’s talking about history back in 2011. Mitch Daniels was the governor at that time, and he recognized the company down in Indianapolis is the oldest Mexican owned business in the state. And so you walk away from that thinking, wow, you know, that’s a long time. That’s, you know, you don’t think about those things. And he mentioned that his interns did research. And as far as I could tell, we’re the oldest in the United States. So even with that knowledge, it doesn’t mean a lot, you just keep going forward. And that’s what the legend of L popular continues to do.

Curt Anderson  16:00

Yeah, I love that. And so Nicole, you come from a line, a lineage of, you know, your fourth generation entrepreneur, you know, and all different businesses. And so, you know, for for Edward to continue on with a third generation and demon. I know, you know, you in your world. It’s, it’s almost sometimes crocheted like that second, or third generation doesn’t call you that that successfully. What do you what do you see from your perspective, as far as I carried on a century?

16:26

Yeah, that’s, that’s pretty crazy. Because it rarely gets the second second generation even. And then you just look at longevity, first of all, businesses lasting as many years as yours has, and then moving to the second generation is really, really pretty special.

Nicole Donnelly  16:42

Yeah, yeah. I think it’s really cool how you carried on the legacy state, yeah, grew to, you know, your, your grandfather’s vision, but also making some really strategic choices, you know, really difficult choices to, you know, to cut on the number of products that you are offering. I mean, that is a huge risk. And I think, that says a lot about you as an entrepreneur, and just your ability to honor that legacy, but also, you know, carry it forward in a new and visionary way.

Edward Garza  17:11

You know, it’s interesting, we’re talking about third generation, so my daughter would be fourth generation, because she, she’s worked for the company, and she still does a little bit of work, especially in the summers. But when I took over the business, we needed a truck. So I went to a bank, and I looked for a loan on a truck. And even though the financials were strong, they declined the loan, it was for about $25,000. And I said, Why, why am I declined? He said, Well, see, because third generation is have a 97% Bankruptcy rate. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I thought, wow, okay. I said, I still need a truck. He’s your personal, your personal credit rating is strong. So will, will grant you the truck through you personally, personally, but it, it makes you think every day, you know, boy, I hope that’s not true. Because I’m the last of the McCoys on this. Yeah, I hate to be that one of the statistics. says, I could do something with the company. But no, that gives you an idea how risky I don’t even know what a fourth generation risk is.

Curt Anderson  18:33

Right? Yeah. Just

18:36

like several several percentage points get to the third generation. And and even so it goes down from there. And I don’t even know what the fourth is, but I bet it’s at least only half of that, but I think it’s 3% gets the third.

Edward Garza  18:50

Yeah, that’s like a 99 year old trying to get car insurance.

Curt Anderson  18:55

Yeah. Right, what trying to get life insurance at 99. Right? Yeah. Not likely, but

Gene Jones  19:05

you turn down.

Curt Anderson  19:08

So, again, guys, you’re welcome to our program Monday, we’re having a great conversation with Edward Garza, president of El Poplar. So Nicole, you brought up a great point. And Edward, you talked about it, you know, so took over the company 20 years ago, 2022, or I’m sorry, 2002. And Nicole, you were talking about how he really streamline things. And Rick, can you go into a little bit? I mean, there had to be a big leap of faith, maybe I don’t know if it defied if there were so family members, or what that took, you know, that was a courageous move that you made. Can you talk about that, and then let’s lead into some of the other challenges and then I want to pull in Jean, we’re going to talk about some of the services that you’ve taken advantage of with the Purdue MEP, but talk about what was that transition when you first came into the company as in 2002, and then making that big transition by streamlining things.

Edward Garza  19:53

So that that was a have needed to be a very calculated risk making that decision because you went from between 400 to 500 items down to basically about 1212. So 12 collateral, really was the employment of the people worked at a popular, there was probably close to 40. And by the end of that day, they were down to six. So there was, and then you still had, you know, a small fleet of trucks, right. Yeah. And, you know, I still had. So basically, I looked at business, I can almost write a book on business, basically, you need three things, you need increased sales, find a way to continue to increase your margins, and how do you lower your costs. If you can accomplish all three of those, you just went to college, I achieved scholarship. Because at the end of the day, that’s what this is about. And so I looked at it from that perspective, I look at the movement, a product. And I didn’t see the justification plus, I knew that if I focused on one item, because as a, as an entrepreneur, I didn’t want to stay in Chicago, I wanted, I had this ego about wanting to be from coast to coast, the only way to do that was really focused on one line item. So that’s what I did. And it was, there were even in the manufacturing, we manufacture this sauce called Malay. And my father used to sell it in a eight ounce, 16 ounce 32. He had a 64 ounce container, a 69 pounder and a 16 pound. And I looked at all the expense of all the variety of jars, the caps, the different labels, all this inventory of things. And what I did is I reduced it down to 111 products. And I remember my father was still involved in the business, you know, he was, he was still there, it wasn’t like I bought and he disappeared. I continued to work with us. And, you know, he told me this was a big mistake. Well, it was like killing his grandchildren. You know, you these are items that his father started, you know, right. So what I did was I took all these items, and I calculated every item in an ounces. And the following year, I did a study of how many ounces of this one item we sold versus all these other items in ounces. And believe it or not, they were equal. And the thought that I had the theory I had was that when people bought l popular Molad, they were looking for that flavor profile, they didn’t care what size it came in, as long as they could get it. And that’s sort of it sort of supported my decision on I’m cutting these items. But it was it was very trying because not only did my sales were up here, they dropped. My costs were up here also, and those dropped it. It was a matter of where is there a balance to make. And I love that

Nicole Donnelly  23:39

you actually use the data to guide your decision making marketing. That’s something that we always do all the time as you look at the data and see what is what is the market telling you? And I think that that is so key that you actually took the time to do that. I mean, so anyway,

Edward Garza  23:56

it’s it was it was not an easy decision to make. It was it was very difficult. And then you had to make sure you succeed it to prove others wrong. Right? Because there was a lot of people that were though, you know, when you’re looking at 400 500 items, and when they they’re off the grocery shelf, and you’ve had all these people for decades, we’ve been buying those items. And now that’s not there. They’re calling where’s this product? Where can I get it? Why did you stop selling it? What, you know, it was a difficult time. Wow,

Curt Anderson  24:30

we’ve got a couple of comments are from reading them has been so hard cutting, you know, especially so for you know, this is a great conversation because with with entrepreneurs and manufacturers, so much of it is family oriented generations there’s, you know, fathers, mothers, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, you know, and when you bring that to the table, it gets emotional, you know, you get married to your products, sometimes more so than the solutions. She has a great question here. Whitney, thank you for joining us today. Edwards did your profit increase at all even though sale announces were the same?

Edward Garza  25:04

That’s a, that’s a good question. Um, I gotta tell you, it was pretty lean for the first couple of years, because in distribution, you want to, you want to sell as much as you can per stop, right. And let’s say on average, I was selling $400 per stop. Now, I might have been selling $50 worth. So it was a steep hill to walk up. So that meant I had to really put a lot of faith in my sales reps, to start really pushing the product more and more to get sales per stop, to go up. With time we did, I expanded on some of the varieties of what we offer. And that helped increase sales. And we continue to do that today. But we still stay within the realm, right of the meat industry. Now, in that same breath, I’m starting to focus on some other items. But instead of L popular doing the distribution, now we’re giving that distribution to other people, which is very helpful.

Curt Anderson  26:16

All right, lots of impact right there. And I absolutely love that. So again, you know, the, you know, having the courage to take that leap of faith. And what I love what you’re describing for entrepreneurs is staying in your lane. So many times Daymond, we talked with folks, you know, we do our trainings, and workshops and stuff. And we talked about, you know, hate when you try to be everything to everybody what happens? Nothing, and no one right. And so, you know, I love and you talked about, like the different jars you costs. So there’s a lot of dynamic there. So let’s slide into this gene, I’m going to pull you into the conversation here. So as you’re working with manufacturers at the manufacturing extension partnership, at Purdue, you guys have a dynamic team, whole list of rockstars and different subject matter experts that you guys work with, what are tight, what are the types of services that you guys provide? And where I want to go is, you have a guy like Edward who is just like laser focus, nose to the grindstone, you know, and being an entrepreneur, let’s face it is lonely, you’re in, you know, you’re in a silo, you’re trying to make decisions on your own, you have family, it’s emotional, talk about the support that the Purdue MEP, and just me peace in general. But the support that you guys lend and the types of services to help someone like Edward here,

Gene Jones  27:25

yeah, thanks for that Kurt. And, you know, to keep it focused on L popular, and, and, and Edward. In this case, there were two three different types of services provided. First was the proposal support services that I mentioned earlier. You know, someone like Edward who essentially went to business school on his manufacturing floor, and in his office, there was, you know, sharp, hard working smart person, but there’s just so many hours in the day, right, there’s only so many lessons that you can pack into 24 hours, you know, maybe maybe leave a second in there for sleep. So, you know, in this case, someone who specializes in proposal, writing of proposals and meeting proposal criteria and requirements, could be helpful to submitting a proposal to get a 50% reduction in the capital equipment that that one might need, in order to make your manufacturing process more efficient, right? There’s the whole lean category, what waste? Can you reduce from your manufacturing, make it to make it more efficient, reduce your expenses so that you can raise your profits. So there’s one business feasibility studies isn’t is another area that that we can support a company and supported l popular because, you know, as Edward mentioned, and Nicole supported there, you need data to make decisions, and sometimes it goes back to that time thing. You need some help pulling in the right data in order to make informed decisions, not guaranteed decisions. And we took a bunch of risk along the way calculated risk, but the data supports those those calculated risks. So there’s, there’s another way we help and then and then finally, you know, and we talked about the plan to make the product take the product nationwide, while part of taking it nationwide is to make it visible not what is it curtain Don’t be the best kept secret. Let’s not be the best kept secret, right? And so, you know, I think either you or Daymond and Nicole are better suited to talk about how you know we’ve supported with you all’s help and guidance you were the expert team to help in this case associated with a digital presence enhancement we call it

Curt Anderson  30:00

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you Gina in a couple of comments here. So Whitney, you know, she’s working at Walker, great company down in Houston. So, you know, again, just so many manufacturers, you know, it was it Daymond 75 80% of all manufacturers are 20 employees or less. Yeah. Well, odds are that’s a family business. You know, Nicole, your father, Jim, great manufacturing company, he started from scratch, turn it into a great powerhouse, Diane jobs. Another great comment here, change is difficult. It changes us. However, you know, we can’t become better if we don’t embrace these challenges. And then Dan, bigger jobs a great comment, you got that? You got that? Right, Jean, we can only do so much. So Edward, let’s come back. So what in what inspires you What motivated you to reach out to Purdue? How do you make that connection. And then, Nicole, we’re going to pull you on stage, we’re going to talk a little bit about Edwards web presence, and how we some things that we tackled on the website. But what inspired you to reach out to Purdue where you’re like, hey, you know what I could do some help here.

Edward Garza  30:59

So earlier, I was talking about a grant and Jean also mentioned a grant and readiness grant. The grant that I was applying for was a federal grant, it was a I believe it’s called the meat and poultry processors, grant. And it’s because back during the COVID, there was issues with food supply. And the government is looking for companies in the meat industry to produce more whether it’s pork, beef, or poultry. So the Indiana meat Processors Association, announced that there was a grant. And I wanted to get involved in this graph. So this grant, you have to use grant writers, they aid right on the grant on the on the webpage of the federal government puts out it says Do not attempt this grant on your own, you will basically fail you need to go so I did call the Indiana me processors and they they offered three different sources for the grant or grant writer. And I had called the first two they were more of independent companies, but they had already been inundated with a lot of requests for the grant. Plus we’re running out of time. I usually grant writers need six weeks, this grant was supposed to be turned in within I think it was two and a half weeks. So on there, there was art, who was part of the MVP. Here his name was was on there. So I called RT and he immediately set me up with a young lady who was a grant writer. What was really on good about this was that I believe five, remember the numbers I think the MVP covered, I think 80% of the cost of grant writers. Not only did I need a grant writer, I needed a feasibility study writer. And I also needed a business plan writer and all, all three had to be basically certified professionals, the government sort of requires this. So that’s sort of how I got involved with the MEP. And then they I spoke with Jean, and we talked about basically my social media. And that’s where I got together with with Kurt with b2b Tails. And we started that whole program going back probably what, six to nine months ago. And that’s where Purdue came in, was, again, a helpful hand because they also provided a grant for that program. And that’s sort of how I got involved with the Purdue MEP.

Curt Anderson  34:04

And that’s fantastic. And thank you ever for explaining that. And so again, just give a shout out to Jean and the team and Purdue in so I’m going to rattle off a few names Jean, you know, Edward, just through you know, let’s give a shout out to our dear buddy art Thomas. You know, we’ve got Michelle back. We’ve got Julie got a Bill and Bill Kyle. I mean, you just really have a rockstar team. You guys are really blessed, you know, and being in the engineering state or you know, at the one of the top universities in a country here at Purdue. But you know, Jim, can you talk about your team real quick, and then Nicole, I apologize. Then we’re gonna go we’re gonna dig into the website, but Jean just talked about your team at Purdue. And just what I want to do is just anybody out there listening to manufacturers like, hey, this sounds really exciting. I didn’t know about the semi P network or I didn’t know that these resources were available. Just going a little bit and some of your teammates.

Gene Jones  34:51

Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, all all 51 of the MVPs are at the core are alive with regard to quality. Eat and lean services and other manufacturing support. But there are also some variations and the variations that you just mentioned is art Thomas art timeless focuses specifically on the food industry manufacturing within the food industry, whether it’s a food food processing certifications that are required or other types of support, business or business studies or certification, we’re required. We have a marketing team. You mentioned, Michelle, and you mentioned Julie is and we also have Kyle, Kyle is our we call it digital 4.0. Right, making the transition to where your your machines are essentially networked. I mentioned before that, you know, hopefully those machines are efficiently and reducing the waste in the company, but they’re also communicating data, that data that Edward and other companies need in order to further make their process more efficient. So what Kyle does is he does assessments and implementation studies associated with collaborative robots to lift components so that that Kobach could work 24 hours a day instead of for one, shift automation to get the components to a particular place. You know, warehousing, the new automated, I’ll call them trolleys, but, you know, instead of having a forklift, you have a trolley carrying things where they go to increase efficiency, and additive manufacturing, additive manufacturing, you know, probably not something that, that that Edward uses, but there’s another specialty area for Kyle and, and we don’t forget the the, the the human aspect of it either, right. In the last few years, there have been a lot of, let’s say, frontline workers who have been elevated to supervisory positions, especially native Hilde, State of Indiana where, you know, unemployment rates been long have been low for a while even before the post pandemic surge. And so sometimes they need they call them soft skills. They need soft skills in order to help the company be strong at the you know, in this case, on the meatpacking line or the production line. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  37:29

that’s Damon we had the privilege we had Jeremiah sinks on the on the show man was that was we got to have deep Jeremiah back on that was a such a powerful experience. Man, just spending quality time with him is just a learning moments galore. And then, of course, Renee Stewart, she’s just a rockstar, very passionate. And the great thing is just any MVP that you encounter. It’s just, you know, the unwavering commitment to helping manufacturers, like, you know, Edward and rest of the manufacturers that we collaborate with Nicola, we’ve had, you know, times where you know, that our friends that louvers up in Chicago, they they’re like, it’s like having these mem MBAs at my disposal without being on the payroll. So it’s like, I love working with the MEPs. Nicole, talk a little bit about when you, you came into the program into the project here, and you met Edward talk about that, from the web presence standpoint, what did you see? And what was how did you see things from your perspective?

Nicole Donnelly  38:25

Yes, absolutely. I think any manufacturer knows very well that, you know, if you have to make a capital investment, it’s going to take a lot of time and effort. And the same is true for marketing, right? Anytime a company wants to, you know, get involved in marketing, it’s an investment, you know, it’s a it’s a, you know, it’s a, it’s a big investment, I like to encourage people to think about it that way, because it’s really an investment in your brand. So we came in and, you know, Edward had indicated that he really wanted to increase his digital presence online, and really try to focus in on reaching the distributor audience reaching those distributors. And so we really wanted to create an experience for those distributors, so that when they came to his website, there would be a very clear pathway for them to be able to learn more about L popular the services and answer some of the biggest questions that they had. So our goal and purpose really was to create a place for those distributors to get those questions answered. So that it would be it would serve two purposes. One, it would be able to arm their sales team with sales information that they could use right now to help those distributors understand and learn what were those key differentiators that l popular has that make them different from the other folks in the market. So there would be an immediate sales impact by creating this, this content for the sales team to use, but then also, at the same time creating the same content that would be used to build that thought leadership, that brand awareness, brand salience over time. And I think also something really cool I think is everyone who is probably seen from this interview is Edward is such an engaging founder, like his stories, his personality that just his Moxie and all of those qualities, you know, to be able to create something on his website where we could show and scale that wonderful those wonderful quality so that more people could see him. And the best way that we wanted to do that was through video. So not only did we create some really great, you know, blog content, we developed a learning center where distributors could come and learn and get their questions answered. But we also incorporated some video footage of Edwards. So people would really get to, you know, see feel understand the founder, and you know, people connect with people in business in b2b People aren’t makeup a huge part of that is the relationship right? And so the more we can make that wonderful Edward magnetism be, you know, made available to everyone, I think it would really help more people be drawn into his brand and want to work with him. So that was kind of our approach was just to first identify the audience that we wanted to target, what were their pain points, problems and challenges, and then create some really awesome content that spoke to those that would scale that the sales team and create some what we call evergreen content that will live forever and continue to grow momentum. As the month years go by?

Curt Anderson  41:17

Was it evergreen or Edward green one of those? So and like, how about this, Whitney says Moxie. And so again, as you guys can tell, AdWords is a captivating, captivating, storyteller. Great entrepreneur, Edward talked a little bit, you know, when you and I met, there’s a little challenge where you’re like, Gee, it seems like my websites more geared towards consumers. And that’s really not what we’re, you know, what you were trying to do the direction you’re trying to go, you know, it’s great from a brand recognition for the consumer to see your product, then they would equate that or see it on the shelf at the grocery store. But you weren’t really trying to drive traffic where people are going to call you. And you know, saw the ones and twos. So we made our intention was to make a little transition from a b2c business to consumer over to a b2b play. We did we dug in, like some of your keywords. I know you had some frustrations in the past where like, hey, maybe this keyword thing isn’t working out, but just share a little bit from your perspective of what we did.

Edward Garza  42:11

Okay, so I guess what happened is b2b, opened up my eyes, and really told me how old I really was.

Curt Anderson  42:29

We’re about the same age, right? Oh, yeah. Cool, but let’s do

Edward Garza  42:35

my marketing. And I’ll give you a quick example. Back in the day before technology, if you wanted to get your product into a store, it was all based on consumer demand. So for example, you would, let’s say you walked into a grocery store and you didn’t find this brand that you’ve heard about, or you liked, or what have you, all you had to do was walk over to the manager and say, you know, what, I’m looking for this brand, this type of product, can you get it for me? And immediately, they would go sourcing, they find out, they’ll pop you okay, where, what’s their phone number they can you bring product, and we’ve got a customer looking for the product? Well, that’s all changed. Today, they don’t really listen to the consumer as much, because they don’t have the ability to source it like they use. Today, a manager, basically, it’s either we have it or we don’t have you know, if you go to a manager at a Walmart, and you ask for product, guidance product, approximately just, you know, laugh at you, you know, be able to bring that product into a store. So what happened is, I was focused on a consumer consumer consumer, although I want it buyers to ultimately buy it. So my thought is, if I could get it into this store, it will start to just spread out on finding out that’s not the case, I’m finding that the buyers today are the ones who are searching out for certain products. And so the game had to change and I really need to detail has really opened my eyes to that. So now today, we’re not as focused on the consumer. We are the buyer distributor. And so we’re, we’re cultivating that right now and really anticipating to see some good results. So the foundation has been set.

Curt Anderson  44:35

Yep. So and let’s go here and so in just you know, we’re talking, talking about our kids before we went live and so Edwards daughter is at med school. I know junior doctors looking at med schools. And ironically Edward your daughter goes to med school right word Nicole’s mother lives which is so unique.

Nicole Donnelly  44:54

Funny. In fact, I found out about that while I was visiting my mom, you In Ivan’s Utah at Edward, I was on a call with him in her backyard. And I said, Yeah, I’m in Ivan’s Utah. And he said, no kidding. My daughter’s going to medical school. And I’m like, You’re kidding. There’s a medical school literally two blocks from my mom’s house.

Edward Garza  45:13

And it’s in the desert.

Curt Anderson  45:16

So it’s like, it’s a what? An hour and a half, two hours from Vegas. Yeah, here, Nicole is sitting, like literally black St. Edward’s daughter, Edward, Abigail, you mentioned Abigail earlier, fourth generation. And so she’s had a footprint on the business. So get so everybody out there. So if you’re in the eastern time zone, Nicole, here’s a warning. I’m just giving everybody a warning right now, if you’re like, I’m a little bit hungry. It’s lunchtime. You know, I’ve been hanging out with you guys set of lunch. If you are hungry, I’m going to warn you might not want to watch your screen because I’m going to pull up Edwards website. You love amazing, authentic Mexican food in your country. So fan? I just hate Don’t blame me if you know. So Nicole, I’m just giving everybody a little warning. We’re gonna go live. But Abigail had a little footprint on the website beforehand. Edward, do you have an amazing, incredible website. But what we did is we just wanted we wanted to speak to right we call it how do you speak the right language to the right fire. And again, before was speaking to that consumer, we want to make a little transition. So Nicole, I’m going to pull up the website. Let’s talk a little bit about some of those call to actions. We have some nice techy lines, and then we’ll go to the Learning Center. And so let me scoot let me share share screen right now. And can you guys see that? Yes. Okay. All right.

Nicole Donnelly  46:35

Man, I’m hungry cart.

Edward Garza  46:39

My daughter comes into play is that she took all

Curt Anderson  46:42

the photography, shooting. So there’s the mouth watering plant. options on demand right there, Damon, look at that spices and seasoning. Those are the spaces that Edward was making at nine years old. There’s a Malay paste that we’ve been talking about. So again, just a great, you know, make your Theresia meal unforgettable. Just I’ve absolutely loved that nice call to action. Again, there’s a family heritage right there at images. Look at this. I mean, isn’t this just what I see? You know, talking about the tradition of the family, the family story, going back to 1925. Nicole, anything that you want to share here from your perspective?

Nicole Donnelly  47:19

Oh, it’s just beautiful. The website, just the colors really immediately draws you in. And you know, from that we created a distributor page specifically for distributors. Yeah, right there that we put on the NAB menu. So as a distributor comes, this was something that was not on the site before. So a distributor site, there’s a pathway just for them. And here, you know, we have calls to action. And every module we we this module here talks specifically about all of the things that are important to those distributors, they care about quality, they care about lead times, they care about price, logistics. And so we created content just about you know, those springs, calling those out very easily for them to quickly understand. And then we also wanted to tell tell them what the process was going to be like. So they would know what to expect working with a popular so we created that module there. This next module is a video of Edward talking about what the benefits are to purchasing directly from the manufacturer so they can get it see feel and get to experience Edward directly. And then,

Curt Anderson  48:23

you know, I played for justice. Edward, I’m gonna embarrass your first second, I just saw throw on Play for just a second here. How’s that?

Nicole Donnelly  48:29

Yeah. And this, the way that we did this, I think is a really scrappy way to create video, we basically recorded a zoom interview that we had with Edward, where we came prepared with questions and topics that we were going to interview recorded that and were able to create the video from that interview and a blog post directly. So this is a really affordable, efficient way that businesses can get started with content marketing, and it’s just super efficient, quick, easy way to do it, you know, and these days, people that aren’t expecting to have our produce video content, right. So

49:05

I still I still when I see see companies spending 1000s and 1000s and 1000s and 1000s and 10s of 1000s dollars doing a video. I just makes me want to throw up video that you did there. Right does it does it honestly makes me wanna throw up the video that you did there is authentic. It shows your Moxie, as you said earlier, and it really allows you to do that not only much less money, but how quickly can you get that done comparatively, it can take a month or more to get a video done if you’re going to do the production and everything else. And and you can get you could update that tomorrow if you want to.

Nicole Donnelly  49:48

Yep, exactly. And you have to move quickly, right. Move quickly. So and then here we just have, you know, all their questions answered really quickly for them. And then if you keep scrolling down, there’s We’ve direct links to the Learning Center where we have some in depth articles here on some of the top questions that we created that would help them understand more deeply. You know, all the things that that go into what you know, the benefits of Theresa,

Curt Anderson  50:16

and then I’ll go to the top or Nicole and what we did here in Edward loves, you know, made in USA, internationally, he you know, he’s now expanding internationally. And so Nicole, here’s the Learning Center. So if you want to just talk about I think, is it this, I can just post here maybe. So just what we just shared, you know, again, Damon, I love what you’re putting out, this was a zoom recording, recording turned into this great piece of content here. So just walk everybody through, like what how you and your team, you know, how you tackle this type of content?

Nicole Donnelly  50:49

Yeah, so two things. So we first put together a strategy with a customer where we we have a brainstorming session, and we asked them, Okay, let’s talk about what are the top questions that your customers are asking through each phase of the buyers journey. And then we we literally compile a list of all of those questions and objections that they hear, you know, what are the things? What are the reasons they’re not moving forward to the next stage? And then behind the scenes, we do keyword research, right. So we want to marry what what you’re hearing directly from the market? What are the issues problems that we’re having? And then let’s Let’s marry that up with some keyword research? What are people searching for in Google? Right? What are the top top keywords that are that people are looking for? What are the opportunities for L popular to be able to rank on the first page of Google for some of these keywords, so we did is we basically put together a content strategy that combined both of those by creating pieces of content that are going to capture those, you know, really targeted important keywords to get that those first page, hopefully, higher rankings, right. And that also served the purpose of serving the customer. So these are directly answering the top questions that they have. So now you have this piece of content, this this article that Edward and his sales team can immediately use and share and refer potential distributors to right now, you want to learn more about what sets are true. So apart, here’s this resource for you. And it’s right there can be used immediately now as the same sales enable meant resource. But then also, now you have this evergreen content, that’s going to increase your brand awareness help you rank in Google and over time, get gain momentum so that not only are you helping your sales team, but you’re also building your brand for the long term.

Curt Anderson  52:32

Love it, absolutely love it. So I’m going to stop sharing, I’m going to be my final man, we could talk all day, I want to be mindful of everybody’s time. Edward talked about like, you’re the you’re the experience on your end the process, you know, how did you What did you think of going through this? You know, this whole digital transformation, as you described, you know, new to you, trying to make connections with these b2b buyers, how, you know, work with the call myself the team, how, you know, what was experienced on your end?

Edward Garza  53:02

Yeah, it was, you know, what it was it wasn’t a situation where you gave information to someone, and then you waited weeks and months to get feedback. So we scheduled a was at every Monday morning. We scheduled an hour to review and to build his foundation to get to what we have today. But it was I mean, I I enjoyed the process. It was I at first I thought time is my biggest enemy. And so but I know how important this part of the business is, it’s more important than ice probably because I’m more hands on I’m having to deal with with customers with processing the office everything and so there’s another world going on that’s important including which we really didn’t talk about much was LinkedIn and that’s where I have a weakness and so all of that was brought to my attention we’ve worked on that here’s a lot involved in what I really didn’t know it so it was very helpful

Curt Anderson  54:14

Yeah, absolutely and and guys definitely connect with Edward I think you have a fantastic profile now so everybody out there our friends on LinkedIn or if you’re catching this on replay definitely connect with Edward you want to connect with Jeanne connect with Nicole myself Damon, but I love what you’re saying couple comments. I want to give here these old family fam these old family photos are awesome great touch. Dan bigger says this is getting flashbacks to my days in the labeling industry. Right here we have Whitney saying well done website. So again, guys, I want to thank you all for joining us here the comments as we wind down Edward, you’re Jean.

Gene Jones  54:53

Yeah, I’ve got I’ve got an announcement hot off the press here. This will be news for Edward It’s a small piece but you know, every every piece, every piece counts. We were taking the L popular spices, and we are including them in promotional giveaway gift baskets that we’re giving away at the best in Indiana manufacturing awards luncheon Nice. chamber. So we’re a sponsor and you know, Edward, the support large and small never stops. Right. So what about one of our guys is going somewhere to buy your your spices today and take those to the gift baskets.

Curt Anderson  55:42

That Jean, thank you for the awesome news, man. That is fantastic. Man, I’m Nicole, we might have to go up to the end and just get one of those gifts. So I think we

Nicole Donnelly  55:50

need to do it across the party.

Curt Anderson  55:53

That’s right. So I want to be mindful of everybody’s time. I know we could chat all day. So let’s wind down on this Edward, your experience working with Gene art the entire other rockstars at the Purdue MEP, your experience? Do you do you feel more empowered, you feel that you’re better off aligning yourself with the MEP network? Could you share your thoughts there?

Edward Garza  56:12

I do is matter of fact, I have a note to myself to reach out to Jean, because I have a question for him. But no, absolutely. As a small business. I, I’ve been referring people to the MEP, because a lot of people don’t understand. They’re our resource resources out there. Yeah. I mean, it’s taken me literally decades to understand that there are now these are programs that have been coming on board with the state. So that’s helpful, but knowing that those programs are there is it’s a challenging for a lot of small business. Yep. So

Curt Anderson  56:52

you know, it’s very challenging. And again, our message Damon week in week out, boy, you are not alone. Boy in like you said, Edward, you know, one minute, you’re your own HR department next minute, you’re the finance department next minute you’re trying to figure out operations, then you’ve got USDA certifications, you know, I had the honor privilege of taking a tour of your facility. I’m like I was just completely blown away, and just how you handle it, and still have that great head of hair. Look at the old man other stress that you’ve been under, you know,

Edward Garza  57:21

she’s got more hair on his face than I do in my head while

Curt Anderson  57:25

we’re doing off. And that’s why you know, I, you know, this the Watchtower thing that were well on me, but you’re doing great. So, you know, first off, we want to thank you, thank you for everything that you’ve done. Thank you for connecting with Purdue MEP. I can’t express how much I appreciate your trust, your friendship, the opportunity to be a part of your you know, this 100 euro euro journey. I never take that for granted. And I just you know, Nicole, it was an honor working with Nicole, but we gave you everything we had working on this project together and continue to do so. And just you know, we wish you absolutely nothing but great success. Jean any parting words of wisdom for everybody out there any manufacturers that are listening that you want to share before we wind down?

Gene Jones  58:04

Yeah, just reach out to your manufacturing extension partnership. It’s there’s there’s one in every state not necessarily connected to the university and also one in in Puerto Rico and, and find out how they can help you or how that they can connect you to services. So thanks, you know, thanks to Edward, you know, for reaching out to us. I really enjoyed working with him and appreciate him referring us.

Curt Anderson  58:29

Yeah, absolutely. And again, thank you to the entire team at the Purdue MEP Nicole any parting words of wisdom any anything that you want to share as we wind down?

Nicole Donnelly  58:37

I would just say yeah, it’s truly been an honor getting to work with Edward he’s just really such a inspiration just the journey that he’s been on and every call I had with him I learned so so much it was just such a pleasure to be able to support and it’s just so awesome to be able to market such a cool product honestly you know that has such a wonderful legacy so just thank you Edward from the bottom of my heart for letting us support this project it’s been a joy so

Curt Anderson  59:04

Edward any words of wisdom you want to share with anybody out there as we close down?

Edward Garza  59:09

No, I I enjoyed the online with everyone. And yeah, reach out to all these resources.

Curt Anderson  59:22

Absolutely. So again, Edward we wish you nothing but monster successes we’re coming into a new year. Congratulations to your daughter Abigail and her journey and med school and we wish her the best and so again thank you Damon any words of wisdom just Dude, I don’t know how we’re so blessed. Just

59:39

to be able to share the stories of the these awesome manufacturers like Edward in these long time companies is just so awesome. They’re around all of us and just being able to share it and hopefully reach some other ones that that didn’t realize that the MVPs are out there. And they have resources. That’s really what I hope this By sharing these these incredible stories Thanks so much everyone

Curt Anderson  1:00:04

yeah and the great thing is we’ll close out on this guy’s it’s just you know our manufacturers are truly the heroes and the heartbeat the pulse of our economy they’ve you know just carried our country for years and decades centuries and to see a company like the Garza family what they’ve done for 100 years is boy if if you’re not inspired with this program Damon we need to need to get your pulse checked or something turn the turn the pacemaker up so guys we’re gonna close out we wish everybody an amazing incredible week. Go out there just keep crushing it just like our dear friend Edward is in boy just be someone’s inspiration man just you know, support and thank the manufacturer and we will see you guys Damon, we’re back on Friday. We have another MEP that great story on this Friday. So we’ll see you then. guys have a great day and we’re closing out James. Edward, Hang on one second.

1:00:54

Okay.