Heinz Vieluf Jr, President of Cibao Meat Products | CEOs You Should Know

Heinz Vieluf Jr, President of Cibao Meat Products | CEOs You Should Know

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
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(00:23):
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Speaker 2 (00:27):
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Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hi.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Everyone to welcome to this week's edition of CEOs. You
should know I am Steve Dallson and I'm joined by Heines,
the president of Sabami Products. Heines, thanks for being with
us today.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you guys so much for having me. It's a
pleasure to be here.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
We're excited to to dive in a little bit about yourself,
about the company, and be able to share with our listeners.
So let's kick off. So, as the grandson of the founder,
you definitely have a very unique perspective on the challenges
and triumphs of running a family owned business in today's
competitive landscape.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I would imagine yes absolutely. I mean, you know, to
be fifty five years in the unis is just a
great testament to ourselves in the company, but also the
family and its nature and what we've learned and the
lessons that we've learned, and we've learned together, right, So
I think that's that really adds to where we are
as a company now.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Absolutely, congrats on the fifty five years.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
And as I know, it's probably always been a part
of your life, but can you tell us a little
bit about your journey at the Bout Meats and what
really drove you into the family business.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Sure, well, you know, I was thinking about this on
the way in because I know questions always come up
about the history, and you're the third generation, so they
want to know about the history, and I like to
share a story. I mean, part of the story is
my grandfather obviously, the founder, and some of my fondest memories.
So as a kid, I was a first generation born American.
My parents were born in the Jamaican Republic. So as
part of the customer what was going on with the

(01:42):
families that immigrated here to this country, they always send
the kids back to the Dominican Republic to visit their
grandparents and their family because that's where they're from. So
for me, what that meant was that my summers were
spent in the Dominican Republic, which is great. I lucky
r not not complaining about that, but it was a
great opportunity one to get to know your family members.
Obviously you are immersed in a different language and culture.

(02:03):
So that's how I learned Spanish. It wasn't in school.
It was going to the Dominican Republic and fending for myself.
Nobody was there to translate for me, like I had
to figure it out, which was great. Obviously you have
the love and care of your grandparents. But to get
back to your original question, one of my fondest memories
is my grandfather, even as he was getting older in
the sixties seventies, but when I would visit, he would
absolutely love to go to his shed and hand grind

(02:24):
different meats with different seasonings and just play around like
almost like a foodie now, experiment in the kitchen. That's
what he was.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
That's awesome, And.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
He would always take me to be part of it
and let me, you know, hand crank the hand grinder
and put in the seasoning and I'm getting in there
with my hands and washing my hands afterwards. But it
was it was really a part of the process. Obviously,
he was a technical expert understood it all really well,
and I was just happy to be there. That's awesome.
So that's part of like how I got into the company.
Other things I can let you know behind the curtain

(02:52):
a little bit. My grandfather and I would always watch
wrestling together. He was a big fan, and then he
got me into it, so that was something we shared.
And then I remember as he got older, and you
know this, as a young kid, you don't necessarily want
to do what your parents tell you to do, and
you want to do your own thing. But I'll always
remember one conversation. I even bring it up to this
day when speaking to the family members. Is the only
reason why I'm in the business is because my grandfather

(03:14):
asked me to be and he said it would be
make him so happy because he saw I was a
serious kid, but quiet, but he wanted to make sure
that I definitely gave it a consideration. In the thought
that always stuck with me, so especially after his passing,
it made it even more prevalent and I wanted to succeed,
and so I kind of went into the family business.
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Well, he sounds like a great guy, and I'm sure
you're making him very proud today.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Congrats. So tell me a little bit about how your
roles have evolved there. Right, you're a sales manager and
now obviously president.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, yeah, no problem. Well, starting in the company, you know,
obviously you are a family member, so you're a known quantity, right,
And let's be real, the expectation is you're only here
because your parents put you here. That's what it is.
Unless you come with this particular skill set that they know,
like you're an engineer, you're this, you're that, They're going
to just judge you based upon your last name, which
is natural, it's almost a human emotion. So I knew

(04:01):
I had to earn my way. So how do I
earn my way? I'm new, but I'm every educated at
this point, right, I'm the higher level of education compared
to my father, just because generationally the support and he's
able to start. So I did the sales manager think
to start because in our sales department at the time,
was only one person like dedicated for that. Plus let's
say my father and anybody else, and he needed help, right,
he was the vice president at the time, but he

(04:22):
needed help. We have a presentation for Bjay's but I'm
double booked with Walmart. Oh my god, this is an
opportunity that we can't miss. We can't do it all.
So I took that presentation for Walmart, which was in
a hotel in Westchester, like straight out of college. But
I obviously I was well versed in PowerPoint. I just
did a forty years of power points. I could speak

(04:43):
in public and I wasn't you afraid to do so
or nervous And then you know, to get you guys,
to let you guys know something else that was really cool.
At the time. I bought my girlfriend whoended up being
my wife.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
So she was the one like cutting the samples and
I'm mere meeting with the vice president of Sam's Club
who's here in the Northeast, and we were invited, thankfully
because of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce. Nice and I
think they reached out to the Bronx Chamber, the Hispanic
Bronx Chamber of Commerce, and they were looking for, you know,
Hispanic companies because that was what they were initiative was
and if they were minority certified that was a plus.

(05:14):
That's something else that I started. I realized that a
minority certification, which is a lengthy process, could open doors
and opportunities. It doesn't guarantee you anything, but it gets
you noticed and if you prepare well for those moments,
you'll succeed. So that's part of what I did. So
that's how I evolved in the sales managing done, we
did get the nice congratulation, so that was great, right,

(05:37):
I would do it together and into the business. And
then as things evolved, we had to change things electronically,
or there was other forms to fill out, or you
have to be a certain level to exchange data with us,
like to this is a technological BASEI yeah, for sure,
smaller companies maybe don't have the bandwidth to do it
necessarily right. But me, I was coming out of college.
I was so focused on this and that as like
whatever it was, I'll figure it out. That's what it did.

(05:59):
I really apply myself. So if there was like a
prerequisite to do a business with the Beg's or a Walmart,
I jumped right into it. I'll figure this out. Give
me a day. If I have questions, I'll ask and
then I can do it. So I never lost that confidence,
I never lost the passion, and I was hungry because
there's one thing when you walk into the businesses, you
want to prove yourself. So that was what I did
right away, like sales managing, meeting with all the top customers,

(06:22):
introducing new products, meeting potential new accounts, which ended up
being like at the time for us, you know BJ's
Wholesale Club, Costco Wholesales, the Sam's Club which I mentioned,
and plus O there's you know, smaller distributors. So that
was kind of where I evolved from a sales manager.
As I grew, I became a vice president and I
still did a lot of sales thing, but then I
started to get involved in other aspects of the business.

(06:42):
I was really big on improvement, like I just can't
stand still because it just bothers me when things are
the same, not that they're not working, it's just I
always think that this could be done better, and I
know I can figure it out, so dive myself into
the things and not everything wins is a win or
a loss. But at least I had like that mentality.
I'm always looking for improvement. I don't care how big
or small it is. So that helped me. Obviously, it

(07:04):
helped me. You know, dictate corporate policy, make changes, but
it came from more of a of a status of
where I've earned the respect because I did certain things
and the company was seeing the fruits of my labor.
So that's like the vice president. Obviously to become president,
our president had retired, I was the vice president in line.
There was a conversation. I remember this was within the family,
and this was, you know, an open table discussion. It

(07:25):
wasn't with tension or anything like that, but this was
when I was the vice president and it was like
who should be the next president? I calmly said, you're
looking at him with confidence, like I do everything the
president does now plus more. Yep, Like that's just And
then everyone at the table that was part of the
business completely supported me. It wasn't like I don't think
he's ready. He's like no, just so you know, yeah
he does everything.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yeah, and you earned it and the time.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
But I also had the validation of my peers, which
was important, so that helped. So when I became president,
it was like I hit the ground running. If anything,
then the velocity have changed only increased because I had
no barriers now kind of no barriers, and that It's
not that everything I did get screen lighted, but I
had such a good vision and I was really in
tune with like the issues and processes and problem solving,

(08:11):
and I was getting better and I was analytical and
I didn't need to be an expert because I was
knowledgeable on and off. But I also had like a
different mindset, and so that's what kind of helped me
propel me to be president. And what really advanced, I
guess was my ability to just bring in emotional intelligence
into the equation. I mean, I've done trimetrics assessments. I've
had the whole company do assessments as far as what

(08:32):
you are naturally and what you are when you have
to adapt, and what makes you uncomfortable even if you
don't say it, like I really got into it and
it and it only helped us become a better, more
dynamic company. That's, you know, fifty five years so you
think of it as old, but I think of us
as a young startup. Like that's why I want to
mind it. I want quick decision making. I only want
to do analyzed data. If I feel like it's a
really big decision, I need to take the time to

(08:54):
analyze but I also have the other side of being
quickly and decisive and if I see an opportunity and
it's great, I go for it. I don't even hesitate
where that could happen, like, we'll figure it out. So
I kind of have that and I push that to
the staff. So I also tell them that it's okay
to make failures. It's not about succeeding every single time.
It's okay to fail. Let's just figure out why you fail.
Let's kind of get to the solution together. So don't
think like you can't fail. So that really, you know,

(09:16):
lets the staff know to try new things. I think
we can improve this and kind of just creates this
culture of learning that I want, of learning and continuous improvement.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, and evolution, right, like evolution, definitely growing. I'm a
firm believer of mindset matter. So you could tell by
how you're speaking that you're so passionate about the company
but also trying to, to your point, make it better
and try to evolve and be able to be forward
thinking too.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
So that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, absolutely, So we talked a lot about your grandfather
in the beginning, right, how do you balance honoring the
family legacy and then obviously doing everything we're talking about now,
pushing for innovation, trying to change the company for the
better at the same time.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, well, I mean that goes back to, you know,
the company slopean tradition of quality, right, So when we
make products, there's always has to be a certain level
of quality, not only the ingredients, but in the processing.
There is no cutting corners. I mean that was super
important to my grandfather's right, So like the content of
fat to protein, Like there's certain like staples that do
not get changed and I don't even change them. So

(10:13):
for me, that was always there. So when we manufacture
a product, it has to be a high quality not
only meat composition, but the technique, the processing, the hygiene,
the sanitation that has to be top level. I don't
cut corners, and I never will. That's just my grandfather
would never. So that's why I kind of see it
like that when it's comes to pushing innovation and you know,
technological advances and production advances, really it's about just becoming
more educated within the market, trying to identify trends, seeing

(10:36):
what's out there, you know, by competitors or other retailers,
asking yourself. Can we make that? Oh, I think we can,
and then you adapt you know certain isshes like low
reduce sodium, you know, vegan options. Like I want all
those options because I want the entire market. I don't
just want what I did in the past. That's not
good enough anymore. So I think, like, we always have
to innovate, we always have to be creative. We have

(10:57):
powerful brands, let's laverage those brands. We have a cat
log of other Trademarklets start using them so that we
create variation within our own market. So it may seem
like a lot of different competitors, but it's really me
that's awesome in different disguises. Right, So that's kind of
like where we go about it, and then we just
look to do other things. We're going to do a
frozen goods line, completely different. We do imports and exports.

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Speaker 2 (11:42):
Alrighty auto parts. You know there's other opportunities to kind
of continue to grow the volume for every stop, right,
and so that's kind of like what we're taking the company,
and we want to be just as just we want
the consumers to have just as much confidence as they
do in Amazon. You order today, it's there in three hours, right.

(12:03):
We want we want customers or retailers you order our
product to stare the next day. Because I was one
of the initiatives like I want I want next day deliveries.
That was the thing, and I didn't have all the answers,
but we're going to figure out how we're gonna get
next day. So like little things like that, you put
the right goals, you set the right key performance indicators
so you know if you're winning or not, because it's
important are you winning or not, and then you get
to there. So you know, those are like one of

(12:23):
the things that started small. But now we're like double
the number less from less tree already, which is rare,
making improvements where like streamlining processes. We're getting better and better.
So that's all those things are exciting to me. I'm
a techie, Yeah, I think I think I goes back
to when I saw the Terminator movie. I loved it.
I thought I didn't think of it as I mean,
obviously it's fiction, but for me and my mindset, I thought, like,
what I want to be on that wave. So I'm

(12:47):
always looking for advancements and technology. I mean, we we
got a lot of robotics that we're into implementing within
the company. Mostly because I'm such a driver. I leverage AI.
I mean, I've done training videos on chat GBT for
the staff to up train them and I use it myself.
So I love all that stuff. So I'm a big
proponent of looking to leverage software technologies. And you know

(13:09):
the last quotion, the most important really is the people.
I want to develop the people. I want to create
a safe space. I want them to feel part of
a team. I need to be the leader for them.
Sometimes it's about patting around the back. Other times it's
about supporting them. Other times it's just about listening to
them because they had a tough day and if you
give them the seven minutes to connect and listen to
how their day is going, this could be completely personal,
not professional. They appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yeah, that's one of the most important any organization, right
is the.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Ability to listen, and that's one of our you know,
one of our norms listen to understand. Sometimes it's not
about answering, it's just about listening and helping your teammate out.
And we're really big on that. That's the biggest cultural
change that we've done in the last five years.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
That's awesome and I'm sure the team appreciates that. It
sounds like you're doing a great job of combining obviously innovation,
but also keeping as you started the conversation with the
tradition and tact too, which is crucial i'm sure for
grandfather's legacy, but also for your customers.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
Absolutely, So what trends do you see in that the
meat industry that you're most excited about. I know we
mentioned just a probably a handful of them as we
were kind of going through that. And how ISIBAU going
to take advantage of those in the years to come.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, well, we've mentioned a couple, so I'll just mention
them again. Obviously, there's the reduced sodium. It's just about
the option. People are more health conscious and I'm a
healthy fit guy, so I completely understand that. So I'm
excited about that.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
Right.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Also just had some samples and they were amazing, so
that'll be coming to market soon. We also have identified
I said, the vegan option, right, and the way I
quantify that is very, very simple. I have a family
member who grew up eating my product. They no longer
eat that product because her and her husband made the
decision for health reasons to go vegan only. Okay, my
goal is to get her back because if I can

(14:40):
get her back because she knows what it was like,
and give her the option works completely, it opens this
whole market up.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
So that's it.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
It's that one test case. If I know I can
get it good enough that she likes it because she
remembers what the old one was, I'm golden. So that's
a niche, but I think it's an important niche, and
people like options. Other things that we've kind of identified.
When people when I say I make you know his
Spanic product, they go Mexican it's spicy, Like, no, we're
not Mexican, Or it's from Spain, It's no, we're not Spanish.
So but all those little differentiations between the culture of

(15:09):
the Latino culture allow for opportunity and what we've discovered
is that every country has their authentic recipes of meat
products that they like, that they grew up with, that
are authentic to them. So one of the things we've
kind of done is instead of thinking ourselves as a
Caribbean based company, we want to hit all of the
Latino markets from Central America, South America to the Caribbean,
even to Europe and Spain. So that's basically led our

(15:30):
our you know, product development map. You know, let's start
with these countries and really identifying what it is in
those countries that we can make because we have the equipment.
What we don't have is the exact formulation and the
specs and the authenticity, but we can work on that
in R and D. So that's one of the biggest
changes we've done. We've really expanded our Cheriso AMONGAISA line
to be really different between the individual countries, and so

(15:52):
we're doing different versions of those products. We have heat
treated which means you have to cook it at home,
or we have a fully cooked option which you can
eat right as it's opening. So that alone probably gives
those thirty five new products. So that's a great part
of the strategy, and that doesn't even take into account
like a frozen line that I want to do with
breakfast sausage is breakfast patties frozen. And but now that's
all these leverage different things. So with those new products,
now I've identified the country, so it's about creating the

(16:14):
trademarks with the new line. It's like I have powerhouse brands.
Let's just go right to the powerhouse and just do
it well. Luckily for us and luckily for me, I
have a financial degree as a master's financial administration and
a business admin as my graduate degree. I'm sorry, my
undergraduate degree, my bachelor's is what I mean to say.
So with that, I've always had like a good eye

(16:35):
on preparing for the future, leveraging DEBTA equity, conservativeness, but
also consistency, and so that allows us to have opportunities
to invest in equipment, invest in new projects, do project
charters for different things. So that's kind of where I
see the market. The market is a more knowledgeable consumer
right than it was twenty to thirty years ago. I mean,
just like I was raised, I don't eat my product

(16:58):
all the time, but you know, the generation prior probably
ate it all the time. I still eat my product
and my kids do, but I still want differentiation just
because I've been exposed to so much. So really, for us,
it's about making sure that when come when, when people
buy our products, that we have something for everybody, yep.
And whether it's at the deli, whether it's at the dairy,
whether it's at the salami market or any other type

(17:21):
of uh, you know, area of the supermarket people go about.
We just want to make sure we have products represented
in all those areas. You're everywhere the consumer is exactly,
and then they're going to trust the name. We do
advertising and marketing all the time very consistently. We've always
been big like that, so that's kind of what we're
we're kind of leveraging really the loyalty of the consumer.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
So that's kind of where we are is where we
see the inches and we kind of what I like
about the company now is that we're willing to adapt,
absolutely adapt. It's not that we're so stuck in our ways.
You buy our product because it's so good cook just
because we make it, and that's it. No, no, no,
I got to like read the tea leaves. If things
are changing, if there's a regulation on this. Let's say
I have too much of this ingredient that I need
to eliminate. Like I'm always constantly thinking about we need

(17:58):
to be able to adjust and adjust on the floor.
But at least I know that I have like the
calmness to do it.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I just never one thing about me that that I
think the companies realize as I ascended to my presidency
is that I really don't get emotional happy or it's mad.
I just I'm very very professional, which to me means
emotional patients.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I just don't don't let it really affect me good
or bad. And I think that's great because in times
where you kind of feel the pressure, I don't really
feel the pressure. I mean, I tell my staff pressure
makes diamonds. Like, if you think pressure crushes you, then
you're gonna crumble. If you think pressure makes diamonds, I mentally,
you're already optimistic about it, like you're going to handle it.
And that's why I am, and that's how I kind
of handle things.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
Yeah, it's refreshing to see that you obviously say the innovation,
but now you're actually doing that right, You're actually being
innovative and coming out of all these different new lines
and new ways to position to the marketplace too. So
that's awesome. Yeah, we talked a lot about making improvements
and different changes. Looking back, has there been one small
change you made that had a bigger impact as the outcome?

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yes? I think one really small change. Right. It was
just an addition of a simple business communication software. It
was basically this is what I mean by us as
a learning organization. It was a tip during COVID from
somebody on our floor because their roommate worked for a
Fortune one hundred company and they just installed Slack. That
literally was Slack. They said, Hines, I think you should

(19:17):
look into Slack. I said, okay, no problem. Over the weekend,
I saw a couple of videos fell in love with,
like the elimination of emails, because that's their biggest pitch.
We don't do emails, we do communication channels. You do
the email, but you forget to include somebody and it's
like a mess Yep. We got it like the next Monday,
completely brought it on board, drove that thing through the
company from the top down. We probably have now over

(19:38):
eighty something users. Nice and it was basically done because
there was a communication gap between one facility and another,
and there needs to be a lot of communication. But
it was who has the time to do all these emails?
So we need the communication channels where the right people
were in the right spots to see the right information
all at the same time. That alone was considered a
minor change, but we are huge slackers into the business.

(19:58):
I'm the king of that domain. But it was funny
because I don't have the statistics, but I'm pretty positive,
but we are one of the first minority owned companies
to really drive through slack. This was like in the
middle of covid. This was before it was bought by
another salesforce to become part of their platform. We were
in there super early and I love it.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
Game change and it was.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
A game changer because it just increased the communication. It
made reporting daily. There was no longer you know, one
department doing a report at the end of the days
of filing the folder that never gets seen unless it's requested.
It was literally posted every day every day, so and
twenty five people saw it every day. Like little things
like that. Reporting wise, communication frised me made a huge difference.
It allowed me to be more creative and humorous, right,

(20:38):
I can come off as serious, but I'm like, people
see me as really funny on Slack because I'm using
all these gifts and it's a workplace, of course, but
it's like they like that I'm more open and communicable
like that. So I think it's just helped and then
it kind of lends itself to the culture of like
improving it, communication, listening to understand. I mean, it's great.
We do Slack for everything, daily reports, a monthly reports,

(20:58):
project charters, new projects. We have a wine and cheese
channel when we talk about when we meet once a
month for wine and cheese, Like we do things like that.
So it's fun and people love it and I love it,
and they know that to come work for the company,
you have to be a slacker. There's just no way
around it. Because I love Slack and there is no
way around it. And I'm glad we were able to
onboard everybody that I needed to, even people that were

(21:19):
not so not so tech savvy. I mean we got
them trained, either I got them trained or you know,
sometimes it was talked to your kid, like it, I'll
show you how to do it. But people bought into it,
and that obviously they saw how active I am on it,
So it's not like I just set it up and
I walk away, Like I am there at all hours
to day, and I read it almost every single message,

(21:39):
and sometimes it'll just be me saying thank you.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Right, but I people see the go hind steah, you
noticed it.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I recommize it. So that's like one small change. I
had a huge impact because I completely changed the way
we communicate within departments. I mean they reduced company emails
by ninety nine percent. It was huge, awesome, and a
lot of people just communicate faster. And it ge also
made you know, certain channels are related to reporting, so
it's accountability. Why wasn't this report posted like the expectation is.

(22:06):
It's there every day, So that really helped and change things,
I think for the better for the company.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
How do you handle pressure in your own life, both
personally and professionally?

Speaker 2 (22:13):
All right, that's that's great question. One of my favorite taglines.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Life I love it. I'm gonna steal it for me,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
So it's personally and professionally, right, So professionally, if I'm
in a pressurized situation where you know, what might be
seen as stressful again, I exhibit professionalism, which is emotional
patience that I cannot stress it enough. I just don't
even let my emotions get into it. And how I
kind of hold my emotions off is that I immediately
go into analytical mode. What does this person telling me?

(22:40):
What does it mean? What's the plan that I can
come up with right at the top of my head.
But what's a better version of that plan if I
gave it more time? So I start thinking about it,
which allows my emotions, which holds my emotions at bad.
How I kind of got that way is that I'm
really really disciplined. So, you know, I wake up routinely.
You know, I don't know between four thirty and five am.
I work for a certain amount of time. I always

(23:02):
go work out for a certain amount of time. And
I think that routine and discipline has always helped me
just kind of take care of anything that comes my way.
Because I always have my routine. It doesn't matter if
I have a good day at work, doesn't matter if
I have a bad day at work. I'm up at
four thirty working out and working no matter what, yep.
And that kind of discipline and routine is like my
safest place because it's consistent. You know, it's very easy
for me to kind of get into it, to progress

(23:23):
on my day, to think of things. I'm a very
big proponent of getting the correct amount of sleep. I
think that people have a tendency to think that, oh,
if I just stay up to do X, I'll be okay,
but there's a diminishing rate of returns. I am more of,
like I have a bedtime. My kids go to bed,
I go to bed almost right after them, because it's
like I want to wake up at four, like I
got things to do, and I have my day kind
of programmed like that. So that's kind of how I

(23:44):
handle pressure. I have a really good discipline and routine
that I've done for years. I mean this goes back
to when I did you know college football, right, you
had to be up, you had to practice. So that
taught me a lot about routine and that really helps
me now and I don't And I think the thing
about dealing with pressure dress is that I just don't
let it affect me. I tell myself in my little
little little voice, since I'm head like at the end
of the day, I don't care, and I just as

(24:07):
almost like a supporting system, and from that perspective, it
just immediately calms me down, like, let me just analyze
the situation, but we'll get through this, Like I don't
have to let it pressure me. What for, Like life
is more important than this particular problem, doesn't really matter
how big of the problem.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I have a wife, I have a family, I have kids,
So that'll put things in a different perspective. So you know,
things like that is kind of how I handle. I
feel like my mindset is in the right place. I
feel like my priorities in our my place. I can
tell you right now, I will never miss one of
my kids games practice. Yes, because I travel, I do things.
I will never miss one of my kids games. It's
such a big priority for me because being a father
and a husband was the most important thing in my life.

(24:43):
So I have that in my mindset. So when other
situations come up that don't affect my wife and my
kids health and safety, I can handle it. Yeah, that's
how I think, and that's why things don't really get
to me.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
That's a great mindset to have. Thank you talked a
lot earlier about the importance of your team right and
the employees that are part of the company. You've done
different initiatives really fostering employee collaboration, and how have you
done that effectively?

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well, we've done it by creating workshops right to educate
the employees. I mean I use the word emotional intelligence.
That was a workshop with you know, eighteen different people.
I kind of cascaded that through the department, so that
brings us all together. Those are intents, right, Those are
like over two days, eight hours a day, but you
learn a lot, not only about yourself, what about your team.
Things that I've started in my presidency, we started to

(25:25):
do learning workshops where I got into contact with these
providers that can provide once a quarter these different things
about you know, leading without proper authority and influencing others,
you know, task and time prioritization. So those are one
ways where I kind of the workforce sees me intentionally
trying to develop them so they see that. We also

(25:46):
like to do what I mentioned this is about chees
and wine, right, we have that once a month. It's
actually really we have the fun with it. We do
you know, employee appreciation days. Just to give another example,
we had a construction project going on in our building.
So I just this was my decision. Nobody told me
to do it. Do you know what, Since the workforce
that's in my production and packaging room are the most

(26:07):
affected by this phase one of construction, every Friday, we
are going to have a food truck for them, and
I paid for it because I knew I needed them
to be comfortable. Because if they're not uncomfortable, they're not
being efficient for me. So let me get them a
little bit of comfort, because it's gonna be just a
little bit uncomfortable for everyone anyway. Let me give them
something else to look forward to to kind of get
through it. So things like that. I mean, we're big
into speaking and having meetings. I like weekly check ins.

(26:29):
I do bi weekly meetings with my direct reports. I
kind of fostered that and cascaded that throughout the departments,
Like you should be meeting with your supervisors at least
once a week, going to check in maybe two weeks
more formally. But just to keep that rhythm, I call
it the rhythm of the business, which I got from
a colleague of mine. Appear but it's like the rhythm
of the business should be. We're constantly meeting just to
make sure everyone's good, that we're addressing the issues, especially

(26:50):
the most critical issues. We're assessing, you know, our goals,
Are we hitting them? Are we not hitting them? And
obviously we're putting out and we're solving any issues, but
we're solving it together together.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
So that's big for our business and kind of just
handling that as a team.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
That's awesome. That's a great outlook on collaboration. Well, I'm
sure there's many lessons you've learned. Is there one that
really stands at as the most important lesson you learned
in your leadership position?

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yes, and it's and I've said this, but it's it
is It bears mentioning again. One of the biggest things
I learned about being a leader is that you have
to have empathy. And I didn't always have empathy. I
was very data driven, black and white and this and that.
But COVID opened up a lot of eyes. Yeah, we were,
we were affected. We closed because you know, the workforce

(27:33):
did not show up on a Monday. And my first
my first reaction was one of the only times I
was unprofessional. I was angry, I was upset, and I
could be truthful here why Why? Why was I angry?
I was upset because I thought they were letting me down.
What wasn't I doing? I was putting myself in their
shoes and really understanding their fears and concerns. And I

(27:53):
learned that and so kind of in my leadership, I
really do. And this is part of one of our
employee norms which I mentioned. I listened to understand. Yep,
I have to build empathy in certain situations, even if
that's not my strong suit, and it's not, but I
am working diligently on it because I know it's a
weakness and I need to be more than a weakness.
I need to be more competent than that. So that's
the biggest thing. It's really having empathy. That doesn't mean

(28:14):
that my decisions change because it's a tough conversation. It's
just about I'm trying to just understand the person a
little better. Because sometimes if you have the right level
of empathy, you can adjust a decision based on some
new information. But it's new information to you, but it's
information that you're okay with, right. So that's why it's
important to listen to understand what the issues are, what

(28:35):
the concerns are allow the other person to talk. So
I think that's the biggest thing about leadership. That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Well, I can tell from our dialogue today you definitely
include empathy and all your leadership skills.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yeah, I definitely. I am conscious of it, and I
definitely make it out of present.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
So we said this earlier, reaching fifty five years in
business is a remarkable accomplishment. What special plans do you
have to continue to celebrate significant milestones versus about me?

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Well, this one specifically, we're having a huge party. Yes,
we do it. We did it every year in the
beginning because you know, first year, second year, third year,
but it got to the point I want to say
I'm on the twenty fifth to thirtieth, where we did
every five years, mostly because it's like such a large
event and the preparation and planning. So we are going
to have it in New Jersey. It's it's gonna be
a beautiful, beautiful event. We've been working hard since since
the fiftieth really because obviously COVID happened, we ended up

(29:19):
locking the location right away. Oh man, So we were
like very gratuitous in that mindset, like let's lock it up. Yeah,
So we're gonna have a huge party. You know, friends, family, vendors,
customers awesome, both both new and you know, ones that
were with us before. So that's gonna be you know,
the event for this year. And kind of what we
do in the future is we we have things internally.
We always have an employe appreciation during the summer. We

(29:40):
have like an employee holiday party, which is just the staff.
We look to do that and we're very consistent.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
That's a yearly thing awesome.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
So those are the things that we do to kind
of commemorate another year's anothers successful and it's we make
it a very casual type of event. It's not formal
with the employees or anything like that. It's just something
we just wanted to be nice. We want them to
enjoy it. We give away raffles, we give a way
you know, we've done plane tickets to their country of choice.
We've done hotels, we've done Yankee tickets, We've done I
don't know how many pigs to be television's it got

(30:08):
to the point where they don't really want it anyone
because it's like where does it gotta go? But we
try to do different things that's great, and we try
to give back and recognize. I think it's about recognition,
really it is. And that's what's important too, is we
want to recognize all the hard work of everyone and
what they've been contributed to the success of the company.
And we also like to highlight, you know, some of
the best workers have seabal the people that have taken
on more that have done leadership, have looked to be trained,

(30:28):
and it's a great opportunity to kind of let them
know that we know what's going on and we appreciate
that everything that they've done for us. Never reiterate little
old standing company truths like hey, I have an open
door policy, Like if you want to talk to me,
just come in at any time. My door's open to you.
Just knock. If I'm busy, I will get back to
you and we will make the time. So that's like
always something that we tell our employees, and they know that.

(30:50):
Some of my favorite moments are kind of just walking
the halls and people see me and they're like, oh
my god, that's the president. Hey, just the Yankee game yesterday,
and I get into it because I like sports, and
so we get into after that. So I kind of
like relating to the employees. I mean, one of my
favorite things to do is I did it yesterday. I
walked into the packaging room. We have this new robot.
It's like kicking, but it's doing its thing, and they're

(31:11):
preparing the next batch of my product to be fed
into the robot. I literally just start standing there and
I start feeding this machine myself and people are like,
this is the president. I'm just there for thirty minutes
and I'm just not going to see what this is
like because I want to one I want to examine
the robot too. I want to be on the floor.
And I always had the mindset of being able to
rope your sleeves at anytime, because my grandfather would have

(31:33):
totally been like that.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Like trenches with them and the trenches.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Like nothing is too big for you, and ever think
like you don't, you can't do this work like this
is all possible. So they see that. So those are
those are things that I do, and I like, I'll
random walks and like why is the president here? Because
I kind of like it. Yeah, Like I taught myself
how to be a fork left operator high low operator
because you know, at the time nobody was there and
I kind of took it from my own spin and
now I could do it.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
So I learn.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
I try to learn as much as I can. And
I'm as I said, I'm fascinated by technology like HMI panels, digitization,
remote starts and stops, and motor control centers. I know
I'm getting a little bit technical, but.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
I love all that stuff and allows you to know
every aspect of the business.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
It really ingrains me in every aspect of the business,
which I find exciting. And one thing that the staff knows,
I thrive in chaos. I have to have things constantly
in motion changing. I cannot stand still, and I consider
myself like a force agent, like a force multiplier, like
I need situations, I need projects, and that drives me
because it's fun. I think of it as fun because

(32:29):
at the end of the end, I know I'm gonna succeed.
That just goes back to the confidence that I have
in myself and in my staff. So that's that's one
thing about me that you'll learn working for us is
like it's a chaotic environment, but I know where I'm
going type, so you can rely on me. But it
trusts me it's gonna be a little chaotic, but that's
what I like.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
That's awesome. Well, from sales manager to president. Now, what's
next for you? What are your future aspirations?

Speaker 2 (32:50):
It's a great question. My future aspirations are continuing building
the company and there anything that I kind of mentioned
with the new products and identifying diches. Obviously, we own
our own real estate, both in our current iteration and
previous iteration, so I'm going to look to develop that
and develop what that what that means. And you know,
it's tough because I'm still ingrained in improving the business.

(33:11):
So I don't see anything else right now besides maybe
the real estate thing, because that's going to be its
own management thing. And then I think what's going to
happen is I'm gonna end up being just more of
a leader and developing the team and supporting the team.
Eventually that means is that the company runs. The company
runs by itself now, but I want to even more
and more and more and more to be autonomous. And
then what's gonna happen is I'm going to look for
new projects. Right because my life is simplified in a

(33:33):
sense because I have the people in the team to
do the day to day week to week, and they
have the rhythm of the trustss Yep. What's going to
happen is I'm going to look for other companies to
either acquire and merge with. That's what just gonna happen
because I'm going to be bored of this iteration of
the company and I kind of want to level up.
And then, you know, part of my my evolution is
my education, so I can I started reading again more
consistently in my thirties, a lot of business books, autobiographies.

(33:55):
I'll still like my fiction. I probably cycle three to
five books at a time from audio. So I'm reading.
But some of the things I've learned is, you know,
this is a great book for me was ten X
is simpler than two X, which means if you really
focus on growing ten times, which you'll realize is you
will be doing less because you're focusing on projects that
are so large in scale that you will look to
eliminate things that are in your you know, day to

(34:16):
day routine that other people can do if just properly
trained interested, which allows for more time in bandwidth to
tackle these huge projects. The huge things have changed so
I've kind of learned that I really like it because
it technically simplifies your life if you if you read
once you read the book, and that's kind of like
where I see myself tackling really big things like that,
and it keeps me exciting. And again, robotics in tech,

(34:38):
I love anything robotics in tech test to release the
robot that works in your house, I want one, Like
I told my wife, so we're gonna get one, and
she wasn't. She wasn't nice, but I.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Did.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
I get it. But like things like that, So that's
kind of where I see myself. And then you're not
helping helping support my staff, my family if they are
enter the business, you know, just be a guiding light
for them, a steady hand because that's something that will
always be there. And obviously just continue to either grow
or network and level up relationships and opportunities.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
Well, I'm excited to see what's next.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
I always love asking every single guest that comes in,
for anyone tuning in that's just starting out in the industry,
what advice would you give them?

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Well, just starting out in the industry, I would say,
what advice I would give to you is to just
be patient, right, be ready to put in the hard
work in the hours, because you do have to do
that to learn certain aspects of the business. Don't rush
into things, really take the time to learn, you know,
the critical path of what you need to do to
be successful as or or like if you're making my product,

(35:34):
there is absolutely a governmental supervision component about it, and
your paperwork and your guidelines better be up to park
so there is no cutting that corner. Learn that, learn
that early.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Be someone that people can trust, right, because I think
that goes a long way into the market. If there's
an issue, you know, be accountable, like if even if
you make a mistake, be accountable. People like that. So
that's what would be my advice to kind of people
kind of getting into the industry, and that I think
it's also another important and thing to know is you know,
to find what you want to do with your product
to meet to people and what type of product you

(36:05):
want that's important. So that's a business plan marketing plan.
So I think you just have to take the time.
But anybody can you know, potentially do anything that they
want to do. And what I've learned is not necessarily
that you need to be because I'm not my grandfather, right,
I'm not this I'm not this classically trained butcher. What
I am is something different. What I am is you know,
super driven, competitive, empathetic, supportive of my team. Look, I

(36:28):
look to solve people's problems. That's kind of what it
is as being a good leader. People want to be
able to depend on you to solve their problems. So
that's like the evolution of the company. My grandfather was
the butcher in the shop, grinding stuffing. My father was
more business savvy, started to do more marketing, trademark, and
then I'm like the next level of Yeah, so that's
kind of what I've done, And you know, that's that's
kind of how you had to get into the business.

(36:48):
You just got to make sure you know what you
want to do, understand the regulations that are required because
those are not going away. Then you have to abide
by them. And it's important that you are very detailed
and thorough in certain aspects of the business, but also
have the ability to kind of read the tea leaves
and see what customers really want to make sure you're
not doing a product that's outdated or no longer wanted.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
So that's important that you stay up to up to
date with industry information and the consumers especially awesome.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
Well, we covered a lot. Is there anything you feel
and we going have miss that you want to share
before we wrap up?

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (37:17):
No, I talked about the family a little bit. I mean,
you know, that's what puts everything in perspective. The reason
why I'm so driven is that I prioritize, absolutely prioritize
my kids and my wife and being present in their moments.
I don't want to be seen as the dad that
was always working, right, I want to be present and
I'm really good with that. And so I mean, hey, listen,
am I perfect?

Speaker 4 (37:36):
No?

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Is there times where I'm working when I shouldn't? Sure?
But then all it takes is my little nine year
old daughter to say, hey, Daddy, I think you're working
too much to say, honey, I think you're right, computer down,
what do you want to do? And so I'm really
a tuned with that. That's great because I want my
kids to know that dad is there when I want them.
So that's that's definitely the thing to know about me. Family,
Family over everything.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
Well, for any of our listeners that are tuning in
that want to learn more about about meats, what should
they do?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Well, great resources our websites see about me dot com.
We just be further sad. We also have YouTube channels
which shows a lot of our new products and videos.
I mean, I mean there's I've heard there's a commercial
of me five years ago still up there that I
can't get down. But it's okay. It's like part of
the evolution the web, no turning back, turning back. So
those are great resources to learn. Obviously, if you know anybody,

(38:20):
I know, the industry leads to different types of events.
So for example, the robotics company that I'm working with
that I collaborated with is because we are only the
third robot in the country that uses three D vision
and AI Wow, which is a direct collaboration between me
and a very specific robotics company and my willingness to

(38:41):
be a beta site for them because I wanted them
to solve my problem. So that is something that you
might see in like you know, the tech Journal, because
they did a whole spread and then you and I
allowed them to use pictures of my of the robot
that they did for me. So that's like a way
where you might see me and not realize it because
I am so forward thinking and I want to improve
and I love automation. I like robotics. So that's one

(39:02):
way besides our website, the YouTube channel, Instagram, you know,
all those sorts of things that gets you, you know,
some basic information of the different products that we do
and the different influencers that we work with and things
like that.

Speaker 4 (39:12):
Awesome, Well, Hines, thank you so much for coming in.
I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about yourself, your tradition, the family,
the company, and not really your mindset and leadership style.
So thank you so much for sharing with our listeners today.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Well, thank you everyone. It was a pleasure to be
here and I'm glad. I hope you know I said
one thing that somebody retains. I mean, my biggest thing
would be emotional intelligence. It's like a huge buzzword in
the last ten years. It's definitely for leadership. So if
you're looking to be a leader or or something like that,
this is absolutely something that you should, you know, involve
yourself in, either read about or take a course about.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
I think it's eye opening, absolutely great advice. Thank you
everybody for listening today. And tune in for next week's
edition of CEOs. You should Know