In this episode, Jennie James sits down with Christiana Jurca, President and CEO of Alamo Prints, Inc., and President of LDC Health Solutions. Christiana shares how she and her business partner, David Padilla, identified a critical healthcare need and leveraged her marketing and healthcare expertise to connect patients with unique services. We also explore how Alamo Prints fills a gap in the custom print market, serving clients from large businesses to DIY enthusiasts across the country. Tune in to hear about Christiana's journey and the impact of her work on a global scale.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Denny James, and welcome to CEOs. You should know
with us, Christiana Shirka, you are the CEO and president
of Alamo Prince. And I saw this and I thought,
oh my gosh, this is wonderful. This is local. It
stays in the community. It is not just for businesses,
(00:21):
but it's for residents and people and schools. It's for everyone.
I want to tell I want to know what made
you start it.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I co founded Almo Prince with my business partner, David
Padilla in June twenty twenty four. Our marketing business was
outsourcing a significant portion of our printing needs, so we
decided to invest in our own print shop. So this
venture into the print industry has been a phenomenal experience
and a blessing for both of us. We are both
very excited about the future of Almo Prints.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
How did you meet David?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Actually, through our other marketing company, we were introduced in
the healthcare industry and so we hit it all. We
both had great visions for our employees. We wanted to
make sure our employees were while taken care of, and
we thought that we could do things better. And by
starting the company, we've exploded into this, you know, into
over one hundred employees in a year and in ten states.
(01:16):
We've just we've just been great to our employees and
they've you know started people started reaching out to us
and asking are we hiring? Are we hiring? You know,
we hear your employees are really happy, and so by
keeping them happy, we've actually been able to expand our
business so quickly. And I feel like people have lost
sight of what it means to take care of their employees,
(01:38):
and by providing that space for them, it's just been
new for everyone with all the changes that I've been
going on.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Now, if you're the CEO, is he is he also
like a co CEO or how's that work?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So for so for Alimo Prince, he's our vice president
and for our other company he's our vice president as well. So, yeah,
we founded the company together with my husband and we've
just done everything together. We've included each other in every decision.
He's had multiple businesses in the bar industry, restaurant industry.
(02:13):
He actually owns Hugo's and Archie's Ochess here in San Antonio,
and by you know, taking what he's learned over the
years and by taking what I've learned over the years
in the healthcare industry, We've just taken both strengths from
each other, learned from each other's mistakes, and have expanded
into what we have today.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I have to ask, because to me, it seems very
stressful to be the person who is in charge of
this big company. What made you decide, yep, I'm going
to start a company and deal with all that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Honestly, it was in my other company, our healthcare marketing company,
we had so much stress when we were ordering supplies
online from these big names and we were just I
was explaining earlier, twenty five percent of what we were
getting was complete waste, you know. So we were getting
things that we were ordering and it just set us behind.
And so we expect quality from all of our employees
(03:05):
and we offered them the ground to do so. And
so we were so frustrated with getting all these marketing
material in and ordering things and it not being what
we expected, and we just kept saying back and forth,
how did this? How is this allowed to leave the
print shop? And so we started by renting our own
machine actually for our own business, and we found that
(03:27):
it was something that we could do in house. And
then little by little, we started having other companies reach
out to us and saying, Hey, we like the way
you guys design things. Can you guys do our designs?
Hey can you print our stuff? We like the way
the quality looks on your print. And that's actually where
it started. And then, I mean, this started in June
of this year and we've expanded where we have over
(03:48):
sixteen employees now just at Almo Prints. We've hired phenomenal talent.
People coming to us and saying, hey, you know, we
know your other business, we know how you guys treat
your employees, and we want to be a part of this.
And so we been blessed to have people kind of
land in our lap and want to be a part
of something big.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
What do people who work for you? What do you
think they like about you as a manager?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I truly love my employees. I know a lot of
people say that, but I my I think it's kind
of like a strength and a weakness at the same time.
I come from a large family. I have eleven siblings,
and yeah, being the middle child, it's pretty big, right.
I can't being the middle child. I've kind of been
like thrown into the middle of making sure everybody's happy
and kind of being the peacemaker. And at the time,
(04:34):
I felt like that was a weakness, but actually it's been.
It's in this business, it's been a strength because I'm
I'm able to see are people truly happy? What is
it that they're not happy about? And I take their
ideas and I bring it to life. And so I
like to trust my employees and ask them, you know,
what do you think is best, and and just relying
(04:55):
on them to make those choices. I feel like it
empowers them in a sense because it I was in
that situation at one point and I wasn't trusted to
do what I was hired to do, and I knew
I was capable of it. And I told myself, not
knowing i'd ever be in a physician of course, that
if I was in those shoes, I would have never
(05:15):
done those things. And things can be done so much better.
And so by the table's turning and now me being
in those shoes, I've been able to implement the things,
the very things that I didn't want other people to
do to me, and it's just been a huge blessing
for us.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
What is the hardest thing you have found being in charge.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I think because I am a people pleaser, it's been
really hard to make changes at the right time. I'm
learning obviously through this, but we've expanded so much into
three different spaces in the matter of months and really recognizing, Okay,
is this a five year goal? Is this going to
be realistic? And so what I've done is I've relied
on people with more experience than me that have worked
(05:55):
in the print industry, and I've asked them, you know,
is this scalable for a five year vision of company?
And by doing so, we're able to grow into those
shoes versus having to, you know, step back and say, okay,
we need to we need to move into a new direction.
And so just by relying our employees, it's it's allowed
us to kind of work together in that field.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
How hard is it being a people pleaser to tell
an employee or another company, No.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It's it's hard. Yeah, But sometimes it's better to just
I guess, swallow my pride and just do what's right,
because at the end of the day, the customer is right.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Just as a as a mom, because I have two
kids and I will talk to them and I will
tell them to do something over and over again, and
they don't do it. Do you ever find yourself overreacting
to a situation or underreacting to an important situation.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So what I've learned through the years is actually to
just pause in the moment. If I obviously say what's
on my mind in the moment, I feel like it's
not always going to be well received. But right I've
taught myself to just pause and not react on emotion.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And so I have truly taking that to heart, and
you know, giving myself ten minutes to think about things
before I talk about them because if I again, if
I if emotions driving the decision, it could be something
I regret. And so I try to put myself in
that person's shoes. And compassion has actually played a large
part into our company and being successful is being compassionate
(07:19):
to the person and putting ourselves in their shoes, well
what are they going through? Are they having a hard day?
You know, and then reaching out to them on a
personal level and talking to them privately, Hey, I notice
you're a little bit you know, on edge, Today's everything okay?
And just talking with them it's actually I allowed them
to trust us more, and I feel like people don't
do that anymore. I don't know what it is about
(07:39):
what's changed, but it's just been well received by them.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
In any business, there's always deadlines, always deadlines. How do
you handle that? How do you keep on track? What
do you do if you start running behind?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So we have a team of project managers that are
there to support our staff, and their job is to
go through every day and just touch base with every
employee every day and see what are your goals for today?
Are we on track? Is there anything that's not going
to get done today? And if so, can we support you?
And so we do have designated people for certain machinery,
(08:13):
certain departments, but at the end of the day, we
are a team. And if you know, the T shirt
side is a little slow today, okay, you know, go
talk to the production room and go talk to them
and see what can I help with so that we
are meeting deadlines. One thing I have gotten really good
at is acknowledging when people are overwhelmed so that I
can bring new staff in to assist them quicker. So
(08:37):
I don't like to max out my employees so that
they're not having a good quality of life. I want
to make sure that you know, at five pm they're
going home. They're not at work trying to do things
that could have been avoided, you know. So I worked
with them and I always ask them, are you you know?
Let me know when you're overwhelmed so I can hire
you help. And so by doing so, I feel like
it's been well received by them.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Are you in charge of hiring or do you have
like an HR department and you sign off?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I am in charge of hiring. I do work with
the staff that's in charge. We have a director of
operations Danny, and I have our print production managers that
work closely with me to acknowledge the talent, to see
what's exactly we're looking forward. Do we really need two people?
Do we need one person? And so by working closely
with them, we have been able to pinpoint talents exactly
where they're best needed.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
What do you like about having a business in San Antonio?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The nice thing about San Antonio is that everybody's about family,
and I love that everybody kind of has each other's
back in some sense, even if they don't know each other.
I love the hospitality.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
What are you most proud of with the company.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Seeing growth in our employees. Honestly is seeing people come
in with different background I mean different backgrounds, different you know, qualities.
And I always tell people when I hire them, you know,
this is what I hired you for. But if I
notice you're good at something else, I'm going to pull
you in that department and just acknowledging their strengths and
actually using what they're good at, just seeing their growth.
(10:02):
It's just been amazing, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I love that. Well, I want to thank you so
much for spending some time with us today. I know
you're obviously very busy, and yet you came to talk
to us, and I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
First, thank you
I'm Denny James, and welcome to CEOs. You should know
with us, Christiana Shirka, you are the CEO and president
of Alamo Prince. And I saw this and I thought,
oh my gosh, this is wonderful. This is local. It
stays in the community. It is not just for businesses,
(00:21):
but it's for residents and people and schools. It's for everyone.
I want to tell I want to know what made
you start it.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I co founded Almo Prince with my business partner, David
Padilla in June twenty twenty four. Our marketing business was
outsourcing a significant portion of our printing needs, so we
decided to invest in our own print shop. So this
venture into the print industry has been a phenomenal experience
and a blessing for both of us. We are both
very excited about the future of Almo Prints.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
How did you meet David?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Actually, through our other marketing company, we were introduced in
the healthcare industry and so we hit it all. We
both had great visions for our employees. We wanted to
make sure our employees were while taken care of, and
we thought that we could do things better. And by
starting the company, we've exploded into this, you know, into
over one hundred employees in a year and in ten states.
(01:16):
We've just we've just been great to our employees and
they've you know started people started reaching out to us
and asking are we hiring? Are we hiring? You know,
we hear your employees are really happy, and so by
keeping them happy, we've actually been able to expand our
business so quickly. And I feel like people have lost
sight of what it means to take care of their employees,
(01:38):
and by providing that space for them, it's just been
new for everyone with all the changes that I've been
going on.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Now, if you're the CEO, is he is he also
like a co CEO or how's that work?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So for so for Alimo Prince, he's our vice president
and for our other company he's our vice president as well. So, yeah,
we founded the company together with my husband and we've
just done everything together. We've included each other in every decision.
He's had multiple businesses in the bar industry, restaurant industry.
(02:13):
He actually owns Hugo's and Archie's Ochess here in San Antonio,
and by you know, taking what he's learned over the
years and by taking what I've learned over the years
in the healthcare industry, We've just taken both strengths from
each other, learned from each other's mistakes, and have expanded
into what we have today.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I have to ask, because to me, it seems very
stressful to be the person who is in charge of
this big company. What made you decide, yep, I'm going
to start a company and deal with all that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Honestly, it was in my other company, our healthcare marketing company,
we had so much stress when we were ordering supplies
online from these big names and we were just I
was explaining earlier, twenty five percent of what we were
getting was complete waste, you know. So we were getting
things that we were ordering and it just set us behind.
And so we expect quality from all of our employees
(03:05):
and we offered them the ground to do so. And
so we were so frustrated with getting all these marketing
material in and ordering things and it not being what
we expected, and we just kept saying back and forth,
how did this? How is this allowed to leave the
print shop? And so we started by renting our own
machine actually for our own business, and we found that
(03:27):
it was something that we could do in house. And
then little by little, we started having other companies reach
out to us and saying, Hey, we like the way
you guys design things. Can you guys do our designs?
Hey can you print our stuff? We like the way
the quality looks on your print. And that's actually where
it started. And then, I mean, this started in June
of this year and we've expanded where we have over
(03:48):
sixteen employees now just at Almo Prints. We've hired phenomenal talent.
People coming to us and saying, hey, you know, we
know your other business, we know how you guys treat
your employees, and we want to be a part of this.
And so we been blessed to have people kind of
land in our lap and want to be a part
of something big.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
What do people who work for you? What do you
think they like about you as a manager?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I truly love my employees. I know a lot of
people say that, but I my I think it's kind
of like a strength and a weakness at the same time.
I come from a large family. I have eleven siblings,
and yeah, being the middle child, it's pretty big, right.
I can't being the middle child. I've kind of been
like thrown into the middle of making sure everybody's happy
and kind of being the peacemaker. And at the time,
(04:34):
I felt like that was a weakness, but actually it's been.
It's in this business, it's been a strength because I'm
I'm able to see are people truly happy? What is
it that they're not happy about? And I take their
ideas and I bring it to life. And so I
like to trust my employees and ask them, you know,
what do you think is best, and and just relying
(04:55):
on them to make those choices. I feel like it
empowers them in a sense because it I was in
that situation at one point and I wasn't trusted to
do what I was hired to do, and I knew
I was capable of it. And I told myself, not
knowing i'd ever be in a physician of course, that
if I was in those shoes, I would have never
(05:15):
done those things. And things can be done so much better.
And so by the table's turning and now me being
in those shoes, I've been able to implement the things,
the very things that I didn't want other people to
do to me, and it's just been a huge blessing
for us.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
What is the hardest thing you have found being in charge.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I think because I am a people pleaser, it's been
really hard to make changes at the right time. I'm
learning obviously through this, but we've expanded so much into
three different spaces in the matter of months and really recognizing, Okay,
is this a five year goal? Is this going to
be realistic? And so what I've done is I've relied
on people with more experience than me that have worked
(05:55):
in the print industry, and I've asked them, you know,
is this scalable for a five year vision of company?
And by doing so, we're able to grow into those
shoes versus having to, you know, step back and say, okay,
we need to we need to move into a new direction.
And so just by relying our employees, it's it's allowed
us to kind of work together in that field.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
How hard is it being a people pleaser to tell
an employee or another company, No.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It's it's hard. Yeah, But sometimes it's better to just
I guess, swallow my pride and just do what's right,
because at the end of the day, the customer is right.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Just as a as a mom, because I have two
kids and I will talk to them and I will
tell them to do something over and over again, and
they don't do it. Do you ever find yourself overreacting
to a situation or underreacting to an important situation.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So what I've learned through the years is actually to
just pause in the moment. If I obviously say what's
on my mind in the moment, I feel like it's
not always going to be well received. But right I've
taught myself to just pause and not react on emotion.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And so I have truly taking that to heart, and
you know, giving myself ten minutes to think about things
before I talk about them because if I again, if
I if emotions driving the decision, it could be something
I regret. And so I try to put myself in
that person's shoes. And compassion has actually played a large
part into our company and being successful is being compassionate
(07:19):
to the person and putting ourselves in their shoes, well
what are they going through? Are they having a hard day?
You know, and then reaching out to them on a
personal level and talking to them privately, Hey, I notice
you're a little bit you know, on edge, Today's everything okay?
And just talking with them it's actually I allowed them
to trust us more, and I feel like people don't
do that anymore. I don't know what it is about
(07:39):
what's changed, but it's just been well received by them.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
In any business, there's always deadlines, always deadlines. How do
you handle that? How do you keep on track? What
do you do if you start running behind?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So we have a team of project managers that are
there to support our staff, and their job is to
go through every day and just touch base with every
employee every day and see what are your goals for today?
Are we on track? Is there anything that's not going
to get done today? And if so, can we support you?
And so we do have designated people for certain machinery,
(08:13):
certain departments, but at the end of the day, we
are a team. And if you know, the T shirt
side is a little slow today, okay, you know, go
talk to the production room and go talk to them
and see what can I help with so that we
are meeting deadlines. One thing I have gotten really good
at is acknowledging when people are overwhelmed so that I
can bring new staff in to assist them quicker. So
(08:37):
I don't like to max out my employees so that
they're not having a good quality of life. I want
to make sure that you know, at five pm they're
going home. They're not at work trying to do things
that could have been avoided, you know. So I worked
with them and I always ask them, are you you know?
Let me know when you're overwhelmed so I can hire
you help. And so by doing so, I feel like
it's been well received by them.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Are you in charge of hiring or do you have
like an HR department and you sign off?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I am in charge of hiring. I do work with
the staff that's in charge. We have a director of
operations Danny, and I have our print production managers that
work closely with me to acknowledge the talent, to see
what's exactly we're looking forward. Do we really need two people?
Do we need one person? And so by working closely
with them, we have been able to pinpoint talents exactly
where they're best needed.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
What do you like about having a business in San Antonio?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The nice thing about San Antonio is that everybody's about family,
and I love that everybody kind of has each other's
back in some sense, even if they don't know each other.
I love the hospitality.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
What are you most proud of with the company.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Seeing growth in our employees. Honestly is seeing people come
in with different background I mean different backgrounds, different you know, qualities.
And I always tell people when I hire them, you know,
this is what I hired you for. But if I
notice you're good at something else, I'm going to pull
you in that department and just acknowledging their strengths and
actually using what they're good at, just seeing their growth.
(10:02):
It's just been amazing, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I love that. Well, I want to thank you so
much for spending some time with us today. I know
you're obviously very busy, and yet you came to talk
to us, and I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
First, thank you
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com