So. This, is a podcast in a show that's dedicated, to. Executives. In the b2b. Industrial, world. This. Is a show for manufacturers. Distributors and, wholesalers who. Are, passionate. About growth, and I'm, so excited that you're able to join me today I want. To tell you a little bit about what, you can expect on, the, show that takeover. First. And foremost this show is all about attitude. This, is a show. That I've put, together with. My team here and it's. Something that comes out of my desire. To. Really. Share. My, passion, for growth. Share, my passion, for change. Share. My passion, for. Leadership. And what, that means in our industry, and I. Know many of you who are listening to the show you. Go through the same struggles, that I go through myself as a business owner and what. I've tried to do here is put, together a. Show. That has, a different kind of attitude. This. Is a show that's for Tigers. Not tabbies and. What I mean by that is that we. Often say tiger starve last in a competitive, environment and, I. Am, really super passionate about helping companies, who. And, business, owners who, are aggressive, about, growth and change, and adaptation this. Is a show where we're. Going to talk about bunking. The status quo we're going to we're. Going to do, things differently we're going to talk, about ideas that, are outside of the box we're. Going to discuss topics that you. May not have discussed, before things, that may even be a little bit frightening, to. Talk about implementing, at your business and that's, good I think because. What, we're going to do is challenge each other and we're gonna listen to different thought leaders and. We're going to learn about the, best practices, that are working out there, in different industries and different sectors and, we're gonna take those into our business and hopefully we're, going to, find, things that move, the needle for us and we're going to drive change in, our, organizations. And and, that's gonna be important, for, us because we are about building legacy. So. I want to tell you a little bit about, the show. I'm. Really inviting, you all to come along with me on this journey this, is a totally, unscripted, show, I. Have, notes but, really. It's about me and you connecting. And and. And for you to come alongside me, as I learn and grow, along the way so. I've, gone, out and I've looked for people who I believe are. You. Know talking about important, ideas, people, that are on the cutting edge of their different. Disciplines. Whether, it is marketing, or sales or. Wholesale. Distribution or. Manufacturing. Or R&D, and we're. Gonna talk to these people and we're gonna learn from them together because. I care about these things and I know you care about them as well so. You. May be wondering what are we gonna talk about on the show well. Some. Of the ideas that we've had and some of the topics that we're planning on covering I think, you're gonna be very, interesting.
For You as an, executive, or as an owner of small, to medium size business. We're, going to talk about leadership we're, gonna talk about what it means to lead, a team and build a culture, and organization. That. Really stands the test of time we're. Gonna be talking about. Organization. And we're, gonna come up productivity, and some, of those things that I know are important, for you in, order for you to generate. The bottom line that you need. Because, we are so familiar with, wholesale. Distribution and, because we're so familiar with the. World of industrial supply, we're gonna be talking a lot about things. Like logistics. And manufacturing. And, warehousing. Those. Are some of the topics that are gonna be unique to our show that you may not find on other leadership, type shows out there, I. Find, that you. Know so my sweet spots are in new, product development. R&D. We're, gonna be talking about if, you're a manufacturer. We're, about how, to launch, a new product what does a good new product process look like how. Do we get new products to the marketplace. Weird, about different, ways of manufacturing, we're, gonna be talking about finance. This. Is an area where I'm gonna lean heavily on some of my guests to learn more about what, are the best practices for, keeping, your books and, managing. The top and bottom lines respectively, and and. Of course we're gonna be talking about sales and marketing that. Is my favorite thing so we'll be jumping into that and. We'll be having guests on the show who, will be experts, at, b2b. Sales, and marketing and we're gonna be talking about all kinds of things as it relates to those areas ecommerce. Inbound. Marketing. Traditional. Marketing print collateral sales. Enablement CRM. You, name it we're gonna be talking about technology. But. We're going to talk about it from the perspective of the business owner, and not necessarily, the person who is on the ground implementing, these things, you.
Know Many of you who are familiar with my, previous show grow, live. Well. You're gonna notice some big differences between this. Show and that previous, show and, I'll just stop for a minute and just kind of reflect on what we did with, grow live and it's. Certainly very proud of what we did and and and excited. About you. Know the people that have benefited, from that show I've, had countless people come to me and tell me how valuable, it was that we shared information about, things. Like Google my business and. E-commerce. Best practices, and project. Management and that, sort of thing and I, believe that those things are very valuable and will certainly keep all. Of that up on our youtube channel and our website, but. Going forward I found that what, I really had a heart for was leadership and. You. Know basically, communicating. The big ideas, that are happening in, these. Worlds. Of sales and marketing and, innovation. And bridging. The gap between those. Areas and. Traditional. B2b. Wholesale, world, and I think that's something that's that's missing, that's. A conversation that we're not having very often and I'm, excited about you, know having these this, opportunity, to to, talk about that with you guys so. I'm excited about that we're, going to be talking about leadership. And we're going to be talking to leaders and to executives, and to CEOs and. It's really it's a show for. Executives. In wholesale, world by. Executives. In the wholesale world so we're, walking in the same shoes together and I hope that the. Conversations. That we have will be valuable to you. Now. Before. You. Know we go too far I want to talk about, some. Of the guests that we're gonna have on the show and. I'm, really excited about this we've actually gone out we've planned, ahead and we've got, some guests coming on the show so. You're gonna hear from folks that are gonna join me here on the set or over. The phone so. I'll be able to have like a videoconference, with them or a phone conference and. We'll have them on the show and they're gonna join me here at. The, takeover these, are folks coming, that. Are experts. In their fields, so the. First guess we're gonna have is Renee Bauer now, he's a highly sought after z/os. Traction. Implementer. If, you're not familiar with the EOS traction. Model it's a it's a book, and. I, highly, recommend it's what we use here in, my business, we're. Gonna have talked about that with. Him we're gonna be talking to Lindsay, Khan's act, she. Is the. Owner and operator of three Aspen's media she does content, marketing so.
We're Gonna talk about leadership and, operating. Systems and content, marketing and we'll. Have Dirk beverage, on the show in the near future and he's from unleash WD here's a guy who is, like, me passionate. About driving, innovation, and change, for. Distributors, wholesale. Distributors, so, that'll, be a very awesome, fascinating. Conversation Dirk's, a great speaker, so. We're gonna have him on the show and, this. Is what I'm maybe the most excited, about I'm. Gonna be having one. Of the the guys that I most respect, in this, industry, one. Of the businessmen, that I most respect, look up to and that is my father Wayne Johnson he's gonna be on the show he. Of course is the CEO of a key form and I've. Watched him, all my, life I've watched his career and very. Excited about having him on the show he. Is an expert, when it comes to things like customer, service culture. Innovation. Sales, and marketing and we're gonna have him we're gonna have be picking his brain and of course we're gonna be talking about family, business when he comes on my show so, we're gonna be talking bout the ins and outs and the intricacies, and some of the challenges and maybe some of the benefits of being. A part of a family business I know, that's a lot of you out there who, are in, small. To medium sized industrial. Business or wholesale business, I know, that you guys are a, lot of times running in a family business and, you're operating with your family and you're working with them on a day to day basis, and that's. What I wanted a big part of the show to be so we're. Gonna bring on guess regular. Guests to the show and we're, gonna pick their brains but one. Of the one of the standing features of this show one of the pillars I hope is, conversations. That you'll get to be a part of with, me, and my dad so looking, forward to that most. Of all and. Guys. I'm just so I'm so excited about the show and I, hope you can tell I hope you can see that this is going to be exciting, for the. Industry hope you can see it's gonna be a great. Resource, and. What, I'm gonna do next is I'm gonna be talking, about the. Story so, I'm gonna be opening up a little bit about me, and my background but. Before we do we're gonna take a quick break and, here's. We're gonna listen to some sponsors, and we'll come back and I'll jump into my story. We. Were made for this industry we've. Been learning listening, and adapting. For, over 15.
Years But I feel like we've only just begun from, the beginning our mission was to help industrial, suppliers grow their business, today. The world is spinning faster than ever before and we, refuse to slow down because. Nothing less than the future is at stake for. Many of our clients we are the bridge between yesterday and tomorrow, helping. Them seize the moment today, you. Know they say Tigers starve last. Are. You hungry are you, playing offense attacking. The market and driving change or, you are treating through the boardroom trying to figure out how to survive. Everything. We do is about building relationships and, brands, as stand, the test of time, so, yeah we're crazy passionate, about helping you transform, your business that's. Our legacy what's. Yours. When. Ordinary signage, won't do armored, up with a protection, that's powerful enough to survive any environment, armored, by a key form designed. To protect against, scratches scrapes. And impacts. Built, to endure damaging, chemical washing the feet II resistance and able to withstand UV. Yellowing or fading plus cold weather cracking duck. Armour is the original, liquid laminate coating pioneered. By aq4 don't. Fall for decoy huh, get, duck armor right we don't send strong men into battle without armor, get. The sign coating you know will last against harsh abrasions, tough chemicals taggers and extreme environments, duck armor is tough enough for scratches, scrapes impacts, whether washing, Sun graffiti, and. What are you doing oh. I. Was just gonna what, no why, would you do that, like. All liquid me when it signs duck armors ultra hard surface cleans easily like. Water off a duck's back and, it withstands tough conditions, keeping your sign and message clear but, only duck armor can protect more than your science with over 90,000, products armed and ready. Not. Like that oh, don't. Pay for protective coating on cheap sign material, duck. Armor gives you superior coating, on premium, signs at no extra cost all the protection, without the bill your, facility, deserves the best protection on the best signs durable. And resilient, light. As a feather duck. Armor has you covered. Alright. Guys welcome back for. This first show seeing, as though it's a solo, cast or, it's me just by, myself I. Figured. It would be. Interesting. Maybe to hear a bit a little bit about my story. The takeover story the, Matt Johnson story, whatever. You want to call it I want to give you a little bit about my background and. The, legacy that I've been stepped. Into you. Know tell you a little bit about my my. History, and how I got to where I am today so. It. All started, way. Up in Canada a. With. My grandparents, and they. Were tremendous. Hard-working. Folks Irish and English immigrants. And. They their family, had settled in Canada, in. Ontario, actually. Just outside of Toronto and. They, got together and, my. Father or my grandfather when he came out of the Navy he. Went to work for a, company, called fiber, metal now, many of you and the safety industry probably are familiar with that name fiber metal, they, create welding, helmets, and hard, hats a, really. Old really, well established company a trusted. Brand when, it comes to that that. Product category well. Ron. Johnson my grandfather, was a sales. Rep for fiber, metal he started off at an entry-level inside, sales position, quickly. Worked his way out to outside sales, and, was. Very successful with. Fiber metal and was. One of their best sales reps. Helped, really establish, their market, in Canada, at. The time and. He. Entered. The world of Industrial, Safety and supply, and. So after fiber metal you. Know he he was looking to do. His own thing and, my grandfather, caught the entrepreneurial, bug he. Much, like myself, really. Wanted to work for himself he wanted, to do his own thing and, he. Had he, had had, some success, selling. Safety. Products and so, what he did was he opened, up a safety. Supply, company. In the basement, of his home in, Ontario, Canada so, he and my grandmother, Veronica. They got together and they started selling safety equipment right out of their basement. So. This was a startup, company and, they did very very well the, company was called armored protection supplies. And they. Had a lot of success in, a short amount of time and. As. They were going out and as my grandfather went out and he, was selling, to industrial, end-users, and these, big facilities, up there in Canada he. Would go around to these places and he he would go and he would say. You. Know what do you need and they. Would say well, you know I got enough gloves. And stuff like that but I really could use these signs and you know anybody who makes signs and, my. Grandfather, who never missed an opportunity, he. He, saw this and he said yeah, yes I can I can do that and so.
He Went and he, went to a local sign shop and, he said to them hey. Listen I have a customer, who would like some custom, signs here's. My order and he put the paper on the desk and the, guy looked at it and almost fell over his, chair because he saw it was like five hundred signs. Danger. Signs or something like that and the. Guys said listen man I'll, help you with a few of these orders but this is really more signs, than I can handle, because, the industrial signs it's not just one or two it's hundreds. And hundreds at a time so. He. Said well, that's interesting. Seems, like there's quite a bit of a need here in a market so, he, went and he actually offered, to purchase. The, equipment from, the, local. Science, shop so, the local science shine sign shop gave him a deal, on the equipment and Ron. Went into the business of making safety. Signs and this, is how the. Company Accu form was created so. My. Grandfather and my grandmother they. Traveled. Down to Florida, and that's, how I ended up here in Florida, and a. Key form the signs was, berthed and, he. Spent the next couple. Decades traveling. Around the Gulf Coast up and, down the south, and eventually, making, its making its way all the way to the west coast covering. The entire continental, United States and parts of Canada an active, form had become a reliable. Trusted. Brand in the safety industry and many. Safety distributors, because, that's what that's, what my grandfather knew he understood the safety distribution, business he, went to them and he, showed them how they could make, money selling safety, signs and so he his his methodology, was to go around set, up safety distributors, to, help them sell signs to their customers, and guess. The rest is really history. So. That that really was the, birth of. You. Know our family's, legacy. In, terms of, you, know our involvement in the industrial supply world and it. Really continued, with with. The, the reins being handed over to my. Father and my uncle Dave. And Wayne Johnson and they, went and, they took the business really to the next level so they took what my grandfather had started the concept, the distribution, network and, you. Know my father went out and sold, for the next couple decades.
After, That and really. Developed, a really. Strong partnership of distributors, across the country and that's. When our business started to take off my, dad was the salesman he was the visionary, if, you watched, the EOS episode, next week you'll will talk about the visionary, and the integrator, and how, that how, those roles play themselves out in leadership but, my dad being the visionary, and the sales guy in the marketing guy he worked really well at building. The Accu form brand and selling, our products, and my. Uncle, was excellent, at, implementing. These these. New product ideas and technology. Implementation, he would go out and he'd find the new technology, he, would put it into into. Production. And we. Got better and faster at, creating, signs and we. Quickly grew the business to. Over, eight figures in just. A couple of decades so. That was an exciting time. In. The period of active form acting form was really, cranking, along by, the time I graduated, high school and was setting off to college, and I. Really, saw the success, of my dad and I thought you. Know that's awesome that's great for him you. Know Wow signs whoo, that's exciting. Not really so, what, I did was I kind of thought I'm gonna go make my own way in the world and I'm, gonna do what I really want to do and at, that time it was golf and so. I thought yeah become a professional, golfer or if I can't play, on tour then maybe I'll go, manage a golf course somewhere so. I went off to college and. Really. Fizzled, out a, fizzled. Out early in a golfing career I didn't. Have as much success as I'd hoped I. Realized, that that was, something I like to do but it was something I couldn't do for a career and. You. Know I done a few other little things here and there and I came to the realization, that you. Know maybe maybe, there was a spot back home and besides. That I needed a job I was out of college I needed to pay for rent somehow so. I came crawling, back home the prodigal son came. Back to the, family business which was really. Really doing well at the time and, I. Reluctantly, came, back and in. The beginning I got to be honest it was struggle. It, was tough I wasn't, really, into. What I was doing I, didn't. Have any aspirations, on staying I thought that it was a short-term gig. But. Be, honest with you I, grew up quick and had. Big. Life transformation, things, happened to me when I was 21, years old, got. Married, early, took. On immediately, a little. Boy being my son and, and. I was off and running I realized I had to do something I had to figure out what I was going to do. So. What. Happened was I took it seriously and I started to do the best I could and I I leaned, into my strengths. And I, took on different roles everything. From creative, roles to project, management roles I, bounced. Around the company I learned a ton and. In. Just, in ten years I was able to work my way up to. To. The, Rd and new product development director. Role and and. That's really where, I flourished, and that, what I loved to do was to, create new ideas and, to bring those ideas to, life and we. Had a lot of success, in that that. Role and, I was actually asked, to join the active. Form leadership, team. You. Know at the ripe age of 28. So, that. Was that was exciting I learned a ton being on that leadership team and things. Were really really good I was enjoying my career I had really found my passion I embraced, the family business, and, and. Things, were things. Were going well so. One day we. Were sitting, together as a leadership team and. You. Know we're going over kind of the enterprise in general and what, what are the businesses, in the company doing with, the different departments. And so, one of the businesses, that we had spun off from, a key form was. A small company called safety marketing services, and this. Company was. Really struggling at the time this. Was about four, or five years ago and. We. Were actually thinking about maybe rolling, it up and shutting it down and. And. I never really thought about it before but, something. Just hit me and I said well this this could be an interesting project this. Could be an opportunity for me to kind, of branch out on my own and so I think, the entrepreneurial, bug hit me at that moment and I stood up I said hey, why don't you let me take this thing over and see, if I can't turn it around in a couple years and, and. They said sure if you want to can I take a stab at it go ahead it will give you a couple years and see, if you can you can make a difference and and, that's what I did so, the transformation, began.
I Came over and I saw you. Know we had we really only a couple of products that we were selling a couple of services and we. Had to, really. Reinvent, who. We were and so, we rebranded we, we put together a new message a new product set of products and services and we. Began, selling, and we. Grew very quickly so. Over the last three and a half years we've experienced, double-digit, growth and. We. Are here today we've, actually rebranded, we've named the company spin, stack and, as a full-service, marketing agency, and growth agency, and and things, are really really well today. We're certainly not where we want to be and, and. That's where the takeover, comes in because. To me the takeover, is about me. Learning. How to takeover in. This role as a CEO, and as an executive and learning, how to run, a business I'm learning, how, to keep. Financials, I'm learning how to innovate. I'm learning how to drive change I'm, learning how to build a culture where. The people here are excited, to come to work every day a. Place, where people can, experience. That work-life, balance as, much as much as possible, and. Really. Innovating. Not just for ourselves but, for clients. And for the greater industry that we serve and, so. Out of that background, all the way from Canada and, through, the industrial, supply world and distribution, business and sign, manufacturing. And a, marketing, agency all the way here to you in the camera this. Is the takeover, and I'm excited about you. Coming alongside of me and learning with me and I. Guess, I'll just I'll wrap it up there and I'll just I just. Want to say that. I'm. Excited excited, for you to join me thank you for coming to, the first episode of the takeover, as. We wrap, up I just have three tips for you if you're a listener, if you're a new listener or if you're you're. Maybe listen, to the the last show grow live show here's. Three tips that you can take the just to make the most out of the show number one subscribe. So, that you never miss an episode so, you can subscribe on, YouTube you, can subscribe on, iTunes, you can subscribe on, soundcloud, or go. To our website and follow subscribe, to our blog so there are some ways that you'll be able to subscribe. Number. Two is to, take action on what you hear now. Today obviously this is just, me sharing my background. And story but, in future episodes we're gonna have some really, cool guests on the show and you're gonna learn a ton, from these, thought leaders so, make sure that you you. Know this isn't just music background. Music to, you I want you guys to take what you learn and apply it so. That you can live what you're listening to and number, three is. Hopefully, the the discussions, that we have here trickle, into your leadership team so, that when you guys get together you can start working on your business instead of working in your business and hopefully, some of these ideas and, conversations, make, it into, those, meetings. So. Those are my three tips and this. Is the takeover guys again. Thank you so much for. Joining us next week we're, gonna be joined by, the traction. Us implementer, Renee Bauer excited, to have him on and. Until, next time guys this is the takeover this is the place where b2b, executives. Learn to grow their business, a drive. Positive. Change and, build, a legacy, that. Stands the test of time thanks. For coming see, you next time.
2018-08-03