March 3, 2025 • 31 mins
Ever wondered how a musician's journey from a small town led to a thriving business in the heart of San Diego? In episode 149 of "Carlsbad: People, Purpose, and Impact," I sit down with the dynamic Chris Swimley, owner of Machine Print Shop, to uncover his incredible story. From the highs of record deals to the lows of band breakups, Chris's tale is one of resilience and reinvention.
Join us as Chris shares his transition from the music industry to mastering the art of merchandise and graphic design. Discover how his experiences in Austin and a pivotal move to San Diego shaped his entrepreneurial path. Chris reveals the challenges he faced, from layoffs to the pandemic, and how these hurdles inspired innovation and growth.
We delve into the heart of Carlsbad's community spirit, exploring Chris’s involvement with local charities and the impact of chamber of commerce connections. With a focus on custom branded merchandise and community engagement, Chris Swimley’s story is a testament to adaptability and the power of local networks.
Tune in for an inspiring conversation about music, business, and making a difference right here in North County.
Chris Swimley's Bio:
Chris Swimley is the owner of Machine Print Shop, a local company that specializes in Custom Branded Merchandise. A few of their local clients include: Tony Hawk, Blink 182, the San Diego Symphony, and Hollandia Dairy. Chris has over 15 years of experience in the decorated apparel industry and sells to clients nationally.
Special Offer:
Listeners can mention that they heard about us via the podcast and get 10% off on their first order.
Connect with Chris:
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Check out our "Kindness Matters" T-shirt: https://web.carlsbad.org/events/Kindness-T-Shirts-4037/details
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Sponsor: This show is sponsored and produced by DifMix Productions. To learn more about starting your own podcast, visit www.DifMix.com/podcasting
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
intro (00:02):
Carlsbad. People, purpose, and impact. An
essential podcast for those wholive, work, visit, and play in
Carlsbad.
Bret (00:14):
Good afternoon, and welcome, everyone. My name is
Brett Schonzenbach. I am thepresident and CEO of the
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce,and I'm once again your host
today, and I am excited to havewith me Chris Swimley. Chris is
the owner of Machine Print Shop.Good afternoon, Chris.
Thanks for joining
Chris Swimley (00:31):
me today. Good afternoon, Brett.
Bret (00:33):
Thanks for having me. Yeah. Good to have you. Good to
get you down here. And so I wasdigging into your background,
you know, doing some deep FBItype work on no.
Just kidding. Nice. I saw thatyou had, your your bachelor's
degree was from San FranciscoState University. So are you a a
(00:54):
native Californian?
Chris Swimley (00:55):
Yeah. Born and raised Northern California,
kinda just South Of Tahoe andjust the tiniest of tiny towns
in the middle of nowhere. And,yeah.
Bret (01:06):
What what town? You gotta give a shout
Chris Swimley (01:07):
out to me? El Dorado Hills. I mean, it's more
of a thing now than it was.There was only a grocery store
there when I Okay. When I movedthere.
And then, like, McDonald's wasthe big thing
Bret (01:15):
Right.
Chris Swimley (01:15):
When I moved in. And, yeah. And then I was there
for, you know, till high schooland, just just Sacramento was
the big town and, my little moreof my hobby and my passion was
music. Mhmm. And just out ofsheer luck, I I had a there was
a music shop about, say, fortyminutes away or something.
(01:38):
It was pretty far. And I Istarted taking drum lessons. And
so my whole goal in life wasjust to to be a touring
musician. Nice. And, so when Ifinally moved to, like, 18 or
so, a buddy of mine had was hadmoved up to Utah in Salt Lake
and, went out there and, like,started my musical career.
But, yeah, that's kinda there'sthere wasn't much that happened
(02:00):
in where I grew up in except fora lot of music practice because
there wasn't really anythinggoing on there.
Bret (02:06):
No place to do jams and, not a lot of gigs going on?
Chris Swimley (02:09):
Yeah. I mean, we would me and my brother were in
a band. He actually ended upgetting into guitar, and then he
had a friend who played bass.But we would we would just kinda
play at the little, I mean,coffee shops. Right.
Right. Right. And, I will say inSacramento, which was, like,
considered back then the bigscary city, you know, for us, I
had some friends in bands that Iwould go see. And one of them
(02:30):
was actually my sales guy now.Oh, funny.
And, he was, like, in thepopular band. His name's Jared,
and his band was, Low FlyingOwls. And they went on to some
pretty good success. And it waswe just knew of each other just
because we were in the same hegrew up in a town just literally
a couple miles away from me.Okay.
And, so we, like, reconnectedout of just weird serendipity
(02:52):
here. And then, and, yeah, nowwe're doing music together
again. I guess it was like thiskind of full circle thing Right.
Childhood. So
Bret (03:01):
And so, wait, in all that, when did you head over to San
Francisco State University? So,
Chris Swimley (03:07):
I I lived in Salt Lake for about five years, and I
and I I had some real goodsuccess with music. Yeah. I got
in this band, and we we had alarge following. We started
touring everywhere. And, I endedup meeting my wife at one
Bret (03:20):
of the concerts. Nice. And, one of those, like, classic
movie based love stories. Right?Yeah.
Chris Swimley (03:27):
She saw me twirling the sticks and she,
she's all Selfies. The thedream, the goal of of being a
musician. That's right. But, sheended up we ended up, relocating
the band to to Los Angeles. And,I went through all kinds of
musical fun escapades, recorddeals, and all kinds of stuff.
But it just didn't really panout for us in LA. Yeah. And, the
(03:49):
band broke up, and and then mywife got into UC Berkeley. Okay.
And then that's what got us tothe Bay Area.
And I always wanted to be in theBay Area. And, from there, you
know, I was playing music, gotin bigger bands, did more
touring, and then got just tiredof being poor. Yeah. Yeah.
Because I was, like, a I was a astudio musician.
(04:11):
I was the goal to be a studiomusician. Yeah. And just, you
know, Napster happened when Iwas living in LA. Oh. And so all
the record companies, like, wentout of business and, like, with
how we used to be able to makemoney back in the day just
wasn't happening anymore.
And so I was like, well, I stillwanna do music, but I gotta
figure out a way to how can Imake this lucrative? And, you
(04:32):
know, we used to always sellmerch Yep. In bands, and you
couldn't sell music. I was like,well, I'll I'll just delve into
the the the merch. The merchside.
Yeah. And try to figure out howto make more money off of that
and learn about it, and it seemsreally fascinating. And I'm an
artist. I've always been anartist, so I thought I'd be a
graphic designer for t shirts.And then that's how that that
was is what got me to go to SanFrancisco State, to have
Bret (04:51):
a graphic designer. That's wild. So from the the glory
slash challenge of playing in aband to, like, making it pencil
financially is what led you toyour current path.
Chris Swimley (05:04):
Yeah. I was gonna say, when I went to the Bay
Area, I ended up I was doing myown thing because I got tired of
bands breaking up. And when thesinger left, you just lost
everything. You would commityears to being in a band. Like,
I was in a band for five years.
I got a a big record deal in LA,and then the the singer just
didn't wanna do it anymore. Oh.He quit. Yeah. So, so I was
like, okay.
That's it. I'm being the boss.So as I'm doing that, I was
(05:25):
like, okay. Well, then I gottafigure out the the merch. And,
but it was crazy because thelast big band I was in, they
were actually signed by Googleand Dreamworks.
Wow. And they couldn't figureout how to make any money off
the music. And so, You've
Bret (05:41):
been being signed by such big opportunities like that.
Chris Swimley (05:44):
I mean, a lot of it is luck and your music
catching on and all that stuff.And, I mean, there's obviously
still people making music today.But, like, when I saw that
happen, I'm like, woah. Okay. SoI gotta rethink the music thing
of these guys, and they're supertalented and amazing band.
And we tour on a tour bus andall stuff. And, I was like, I
gotta delve into this merchthing to try to figure out
because there's definitelypeople making money, but it's,
like, live shows and merch. Andthat's why I went back to school
(06:04):
at San Francisco State, longstory short. So
Bret (06:07):
Wow. That is that is wild. So I gotta I gotta tell you. So
my youngest son is a jazz musicmajor at MiraCosta right now.
Chris Swimley (06:17):
Oh, awesome.
Bret (06:18):
Hoping to switch to Cal State Fullerton or someplace
like that in the in the fall.But, when he chose that path,
one of his, coaches in the musicbiz said to him, if you can
imagine yourself doing anythingother than music, do that. And
he's like, he goes, but ifyou're really set on doing this,
(06:41):
because then we gotta changeeverything. You have to come out
of college completely debt freebecause you're gonna be poor.
Yeah.
That's exactly what he toldthem.
Chris Swimley (06:48):
Well, you know, it's funny because, yeah,
there's everybody the the crazything about music that everybody
tells you is, like, they ally'all have your own path. Right?
It's like everybody figures outtheir own way of success, but it
still is a business. Yeah. Andand there's there's some guys
that I really am into, acts thatnever got big deals, but are
successful ones a a friend of,we grew up with who actually
(07:08):
landed a big deal and didn'twork out, but he still just does
it on his own.
There's definitely a way to doit, but I think, like, if you're
gonna be a musician, have somekind of career, like like my
business is yeah. I'm I'm ableto it runs itself. I could tour
if I wanted to. So you can it'sflexible. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So you can be makingmoney and doing it and never,
like I've I've always justwanted to do it because I love
(07:28):
doing it.
Bret (07:29):
Exactly. The passion.
Chris Swimley (07:30):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it would be great to pay
your bills with it, and I kindadid for about five years. That's
all I did full time. But, Imean, when you, it is it is it
is like winning the lottery.
It's really tough. But if youbut if you can build your own
business and be doing thatconsistently from the beginning,
which I didn't do. I wentthrough the whole idea of, like,
studio musician, play for bigacts, tour all over the place,
(07:51):
that pays your money. But thenwhen I moved to LA, there was
literally five guys who weremaking money doing it. They were
touring all the time.
You know, they have no you haveno personal life because you
gotta be gone all the time. Yep.And so, you know, I definitely
was gonna be in
Bret (08:03):
the top five. Yeah. That's tough. That's elite.
Chris Swimley (08:06):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and there's really it's not
you come to find out that's notwhat you think it is either
because when Right. I got tiredof work being an employee for
people.
Yeah. And they set these crazytouring schedules, and a lot of
them don't make sense. And, And
Bret (08:19):
that was interesting too, which you said, like, when when
the band you were part of in LAcaught on and finally did get
something big lined up, one oneof the key players just says,
yeah. I'm bored. I'm done. I'msick of it, whatever. And the
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chris Swimley (08:31):
Things
Bret (08:32):
fall apart. For everybody.
Chris Swimley (08:33):
Yeah. Yeah. That's So if you're in charge,
you know, like like a business,it never has to end. The players
can constantly change. And thenyou're always kind of doing
something you like to do too.
Some my brother's a phenomenalguitar player. He tours. He
still does all that stuff.Awesome. And but he likes being
that side guy.
But, yeah, he's he's living handto mouth. Yeah. And and he
doesn't wanna do anything else,which he he easily could and be
could be living comfortable.Right. But, you know, I'd I met
(08:57):
my wife.
I wanted her to have a nicelife. I wanted to Yeah. Have a
house. I wanna have dogs. Yeah.
You know? So it's like yeah.
Bret (09:03):
A little different little different experience. So I we
got as far as you guys being inthe Bay Area, but I know from
meeting you a couple years backand getting to know you that
before machine print shop gotestablished here in North
County, you got established inAustin, Texas. So Yeah. What
jumped you from the Bay Area toAustin?
Chris Swimley (09:25):
I really didn't wanna leave the Bay Area. It was
amazing, but it was yeah. Wegetting out of college, I mean,
my wife made, like, $40, and Imade I worked at the only place
I could get a job, it was, like,a depression. It was a it was a
great job, a climbing gym acrossthe street from our apartment.
Bret (09:40):
Yep. And, What year what year are we talking here? For
fifteen.
Chris Swimley (09:45):
Okay. Until no. No. No. Because I've been doing
this for fifteen years.
Maybe seventeen years ago? Yeah.Yeah. That sounds about right.
Bret (09:51):
Oh, yes. Like, 08/00/2009. Yeah.
Chris Swimley (09:52):
Yeah. Yeah. Because I
Bret (09:53):
I did That's when it was brutal.
Chris Swimley (09:55):
Yeah. It was it was it was and crash and
Everything. Everything. Economyis terrible. So I was literally,
yeah, working at the climbinggym.
But the good thing about theclimbing gym was they, they need
a graphic designer. Oh. So Iwould work the front desk. I
gotta climb all day long. It wasa walk across the street, but I
was doing graphic design.
At the same time. At the sametime for the gym. So shirts and
(10:15):
posters and all stuff and reallyjust learning. You're kind of,
like, honing your craft a bit.Yeah.
That's awesome. And, so then Iwas applying for jobs. And I
wanted to be in the Bay Area,but I couldn't find anything. So
that literally applyingeverywhere. But as when I was at
the gym, you have all theseclimbers going, like and there
was just it was like in azeitgeist.
Ice Austin is the place to be.It's super cheap. It's
beautiful. Tons of music there.It's, like, music capital.
(10:37):
I was like, oh, this is great. Ican go there and and and, you
know, maybe meet a bunch moremusicians and the tons of
venues. So I was like, I justapplied, and I got a job out
there. So you guys just moved?Yeah.
I went sight unseen. Wow. Youknow, just used my credit card
to pay for everything because Ididn't sound like I had any
cash. I just had a crappy HondaCivic with a million miles on
(10:58):
it. Drove drove cross country.
You know? Just like it was, bymyself. And, there's a real I'll
try to tell this as quick aspossible because this is kinda
just to show you the stuff youcan deal with. But so I move all
the way out there. The guy hiresme at this company, and, but he
hires another artist at the sametime.
(11:19):
Right?
Bret (11:20):
Okay.
Chris Swimley (11:20):
So I'm like, this is awesome. I I got a buddy that
also had a a woman who was incharge of me. She was actually a
a bit younger than me. She waskinda like my boss. And I'm
doing t shirts, and it goesabout, I don't know, three weeks
to a month.
And my wife's like, I found anapartment. So she quits her job.
She's she's packing up. Wedidn't have much of anything, so
it wasn't like anything to pack.And she's heading her way, with
(11:42):
her dad, you know, so she didn'thave to drive by herself.
And the the guy just I'm like,hey, man. What am I getting
paid? It's been, like, a month.Yeah. I, I go in there, and, and
he's like, well, what what doyou wanna what's your hour what
do you wanna get hourly?
And I'm like, hey. This is allfigured out when I started this
job. Yeah. We about $15 an hour,which was, you know, not a lot
(12:03):
Yeah. Back then.
I mean, it's like, I was enoughto survive. Well, Austin was
much cheaper. I will set. Yeah.But, he's like, no.
It's way too high. What? So thenhe goes, She's gonna be kidding
me. And I'm broke, and I'm justusing my credit card to pay for
everything. You know what I'msaying?
And, and my wife's in the carwith her dad, and, and he got me
down to $11. And then, That isbrutal. And then, so then and he
(12:27):
says, hey. Send the other guyin. Like, literally after, and
then he and then guy comes in.
And let me guess. He took 10. Hetook 10, and I got fired. And he
didn't even fire me himself. Hesent the this little girl in who
was my boss.
He was the one who actuallykinda picked me. She, like which
I felt great. I was like, hey.This lady Yeah. Picked me out of
a a bunch, and that must meanI'm good.
And, but then it literally putme on the streets with my wife
(12:50):
coming in route. And so what Idid, which was ended up being
the best thing that everhappened me, it was the worst,
lowest park. I think I'm justbroke. I don't have a job. I
have an apartment.
Why is this moving here? Iliterally just walked into every
single place in town, and Ijust, like, begged for work.
And, the last shop I went toneeded a sales guy, like, an
entry level salesperson. Andthey, they liked me and ended up
(13:12):
hiring me in sales because I hadthe background in the drawing.
Right, in the graphic design,and I and that's what I'd wanted
to do.
Yeah. And from there, they theyactually ended up paying me $9
an hour with a, I think it was3% commission. And and so I was
just like, I'm committing myselfto this. I'm gonna make it
happen. And it actually was thebest thing that ever happened to
(13:32):
me because I learned everythingI needed to know about running
my own business.
They had phenomenal artdepartment, so I learned
everything you could possiblylearn about doing artwork for
apparel with some of the mostthe best artists in town. Nice.
And, it led to me having my owncompany.
Bret (13:48):
Man, what a journey, dude. That is crazy. I mean, that is
just so wrong on so many levels.I'm, like, I can feel the hair
standing up on the back of myneck when you hear people get
treated that way. And I
Chris Swimley (14:02):
was just like, ah. And that's not even the
worst thing I went throughowning my own business. Anybody
who owns their own business, asyou might even know and you've
probably heard a millionstories, the pitfalls are
insane. But, like, then therewards are just equally great.
So how many years was it betweentaking that position and
starting your own shop?
(14:22):
I wanna say it was maybe oh, itwas like eight or nine years.
Maybe almost ten years. Yeah. II hit a ceiling with them. The
the the people that were runningthe company just they you know,
it wasn't working out.
Sure. And I was the lead salesguy. I was training people
constantly because of the waythey ran their company. No one
(14:44):
wanted to stay with them. And soI just knew long term I would
have loved to stay, but longterm, it wouldn't have worked
out.
And that's when I decided
Bret (14:52):
to make the leap. I pushed you to start your own. So you
started it there in Austin. Andthen so you guys are both
Northern CalifornianCalifornianers. I'm not sure I'm
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Norcalers. And youend up in Austin, and you start
this shop. What prompted you tostart a satellite shop or a
(15:13):
second shop here in Vista, inNorth County?
So I
Chris Swimley (15:18):
had a family member who had the ability to do
production in Mexico. They justhad access to a warehouse that
sold me on the the the fact thatit was so inexpensive to do and,
that we could set it up. And soI was doing my own, business on
nights and weekends only, so Ididn't let it affect my day job.
(15:38):
I would just punch out at fiveand work sometimes till 03:00 in
the morning, prospecting,emailing, calling, doing
everything I did all day long,only at night, and then not
trying to compete with, youknow, my the area, you know. And
so, once I had the I'd I'dlanded a few large promotional
product customers.
Nice. And so that put a lot ofcash in the bank. And so once I
(16:02):
landed my first real whale, Ihad two options. So, like, one
was, like, pay my house off,stick where I'm at, and then
just keep building the funds upagain. It was like an I had a
sizable amount of money.
I was coming in on a pretty goodregular basis. Or, like, this
connection I have in Mexico,maybe I could take advantage of
it and do, like, a lot put mymoney somewhere like an
(16:22):
investment for long term. So Iput, like, maybe, I don't know,
quarter million up to halfmillion dollars into this
factory building it up and Wow.And, getting the equipment in
there and and then building upthe business. And the first big
hit I had was when it was, like,just on fire because we did land
some really big clients who weredoing really, really high
volume, 30,000 shirts a week.
(16:43):
Wow. COVID hits. Oh. You know?Just just as we're, like Yeah.
Really just turning, burning.And, so then I I just, out of
sheer luck and tenacity, endedup selling insane amounts of
masks and hand sanitizers. Wow.Because I've been in the
promotional product business,you know? Yeah.
Yeah. And that just, like, heldme over till it opened up the
(17:07):
you know, just, like, literallypaid them for my overhead, broke
even. And, when when thathappened, I just realized, first
of all, it was just so dangerousdown there just to to operate
and stuff like that, and thenthat my business partners were
were basically ripping me off,and and it wasn't working out. I
I had to I had to walk away fromthe the operation. But it ended
up being for the best.
(17:27):
The margins were really small.The customers were really
terrible. They're really mean.Their terms are very long. It's
really hard to get paid.
And Austin was just booming.Yeah. So all the work I did in
Austin was was making up forwhatever I was losing in Mexico.
Mhmm. So I was like, okay.
We're just and then Austin'seven moving now. We're just
gonna grow Austin, and then I'mgonna try to do what we did in
Austin here. So that's when Igot my office in Vista and,
(17:49):
started connecting with thechambers and really focusing on
growing this area. And it's beengoing great ever since I met you
guys. Carlsbad Chamber was thefirst chamber I signed up for.
Nice. Signed up for Netforce andmet a lot of great people, and
it just got me in the mix. Soit's like Carlsbad connected me,
got me going, went into, VistaChamber of Commerce got me
going, Oceanside. Now we're inSan Marcos. And we just feel
(18:10):
really well connected, and andwe're growing like crazy.
That is awesome.
Bret (18:14):
This is a great place to take a quick pause. We're
talking to Chris Swimley, theowner of Machine Print Shop.
When we come back, we're gonnatalk about all the different
things that they offer and howyou can take advantage of it.
Stay with us. We'll be rightback.
(19:27):
So, Chris, we were talking aboutyour journey, man. That's been
that was quite a journey, thatgot you to this point and and
even the steps that led you tocome out here to the beautiful
North County. So let's telleverybody what you guys offer at
Machine Print Shop because Iknow I've been the beneficiary.
I'm gonna talk about a coupleprojects that we've been
(19:49):
connected with together. But,tell everything that you guys
offer.
Chris Swimley (19:54):
So, yeah, we do custom branded merchandise.
That's apparel, with shirts,hats, and then promotional
products. And, you know, it'spretty broad when it comes to
the promotional products. Yeah.You know, if anything from,
like, a tent and table cloth toI just did I'm doing an order
(20:14):
now for I wanna say oh, yeah.
It's gonna be 250,000 bone dogbag dispensers. Just like the
most random stuff all you know?
Bret (20:25):
Oh my god.
Chris Swimley (20:26):
And, so I was gonna ask
Bret (20:28):
you, what's the weirdest thing you've ever done, but I
think you covered it already.
Chris Swimley (20:32):
Oh, yeah. That's a pretty weird one. I've done
some crazy ones. Like, I Iremember it was one mass order I
did was Moscow mule mugs. Ican't remember what they're made
out of copper or something, outof turkey.
Bret (20:43):
Oh my god.
Chris Swimley (20:43):
And I was doing and then I just it was this
vodka company, and they justwanted tons of them. And I just,
out of sheer luck, found a founda source. And that was a that
was a moneymaker till it becamea fad, and everybody started
just stealing them. Oh. So thencompanies couldn't afford to do
them.
Oh, wow. But,
Bret (20:58):
That's crazy.
Chris Swimley (20:59):
But I I wanna say that the one thing, I guess,
that really sets us apart, Iguess, is that I I had a huge
focus because I'm an artist toois the the graphic design. Yeah.
And, that might lead you to the
Bret (21:07):
Yeah. So, we were celebrating in 2023. We
celebrated our wait. It was2023. Right?
No. Let me think about that.Twenty twenty four. I'm sorry.
In 2024, we were celebrating ourfiftieth anniversary of our
street fair.
And so we did a graphic designcontest to have the t shirt at,
like, a memorial you know, whatdo you call it? Yeah. Memorial t
(21:31):
shirt. Is that the right word?
Chris Swimley (21:32):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
Bret (21:33):
you know, to to celebrate that fiftieth anniversary, we
did a graphic design contest.And your design that you
personally drew up won, whichwas super fun. And when we did
the it was the staff. We wevoted, and we had all these
different designs that weresubmitted. And and you know
there were submissions fromlocal graphic design students at
the high schools and stuff whichwas cool and we didn't as we
(21:55):
were judging we had no ideawhose design was whose.
I think one of our staff membersknew because when yours won she
was like oh I was hoping hiswon. And I'm like, why? Whose is
it? I didn't even know it wasyours. I'm like, Kathleen.
Yeah.
Chris Swimley (22:08):
She was she was super
Bret (22:10):
excited that yours won. And and, but then once we
figured out it was yours, wewere all equally like, oh,
that's super cool. And so notonly did you design it, but then
you printed them for us and wesold them all year at our street
fair last year. But then, youguys helped us out. One of the
super cool projects here in inSan Diego North County is, the
(22:34):
Kindness Matters project.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So cool. Andour friends at Kids for Peace,
you know, had a really cool signmade, kind of a Hollywood, style
sign made that they gotdisplayed over there in the
displayed over there in theStrawberry Fields off the five
Freeway heading north on the 5Freeway.
And you know, it's it's a it's acool sign and, the wood shop
(22:59):
classes at Carlsbad Highdesigned the letter or cut out
the letters and then this, youknow, the pieces were sent out
to all the different elementaryschools and so each school
painted one letter and it and itall came together. And when when
you drive by, it's actuallydifficult to take a photo of it
because it is literally right onthe Fife Freeway. There's no
real frontage roads there. Sounless you're visiting the
(23:20):
strawberry fields and get outand take a picture, it's hard.
But even when you have a photo,as you know, the words kindness
and the words matter overlapped.
And so we brought a photo to youguys, and you extrapolated it.
You separated the words, whichwe needed for two projects, and
then, and then you filled in themissing pieces. So graphically,
(23:43):
I mean, we really appreciate youguys being able to do that.
Chris Swimley (23:46):
I love doing that stuff. I would do some of those,
you know, you take photographsand you do funny things with
them and and then I would dothat with my buddies a lot. And
so I always really enjoyedPhotoshop. And and just to let
you know, it's an honor for youguys to for for me for you to to
pick us for the contest and forthe Kindness Matters. So I
really appreciate you guys doingthat.
But, yeah, whatever you need,I'm happy to help the Chamber.
(24:08):
You guys have been, an insanehelp to us in growing our
business and connecting us andall that. So we're we're all
very grateful Yeah. And, meespecially. And so whatever we
can do to help, and, we're we'rethere for you guys.
Bret (24:23):
I appreciate that. And the that artwork that you helped us
create, you know, is now a tshirt that you've printed for us
and is available on our websiteif you'd like to purchase one.
They're very cool. And, I don'tknow how many more shirts we
have in the first run, butthere's already plans on making
a second run. Probably Awesome.
Probably changing up instead ofa we did get some people saying,
(24:46):
oh, I don't wear white t shirts,and we didn't really think about
that. We went with a white basewhen we talked to you because
most of the t shirts we do hereat the Chamber for, I don't not
it wasn't planned this way, butmost of them are black. Yeah. So
we're like, we gotta mix it up.And so we went with white, and
then people are like, oh, Idon't wear white.
And we're like, okay. We needanother
Chris Swimley (25:02):
It is really funny because, like, yeah. In
Austin, the number one color tshirt we wore is black, and it
was couldn't and we couldn'tlive in a hotter place. Right.
You know? And and I've alwaysI've just loved white T shirts
because I just I probably grewfrom living in Austin just being
so hot.
Yeah. But, yeah, it's, like, forwhatever reason, it's not a
thing. I've always gotta do somekinda everybody wants a color.
It's I have no clue why. That is
Bret (25:24):
Yeah. But you guys I we just appreciate, like, you guys'
ability to to do this from agraphic standpoint, but then
also, you know, being able toprint the shirts. We've really
enjoyed working with your withyour company and getting to know
you guys. I also know from beingon the Board of Directors at
Solutions for Change, you'vecreated a cool project there.
(25:45):
Why don't you share about that?
Cool idea.
Chris Swimley (25:47):
And we and we want to do more. And and so with
them, teamed up mostly withJason in the marketing
department. We've created twodesigns. They're on our website.
You can buy them and all theproceeds go to solutions.
But, so when I moved out hereand I've been wanting to get
involved in some kind ofcharity. What's crazy about here
is there's so many. First, whenI was in Austin, I never even
(26:10):
was aware I know there's aChamber of Commerce now, but I
didn't know of the Chamber ofCommerce. The business I was in
didn't deal with it. And then,like, I had no access to really
much of any much of a charity oranything.
Oh, I did find one when I justbefore I left, and it's a nice,
organization that helps homelessand a very interesting it's
Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
Bret (26:28):
Mobile Loaves and Fishes. I'm one of them. Yep.
Chris Swimley (26:29):
Yeah. And so I wanna get involved with that in
some shape or form. I just Ididn't get a chance to before I
left. But so of all the ones Icame across, Solutions, to me,
was the coolest Yeah. In whatthey do.
And so we've we just barely, Ithink, touched it. We've just
done two designs. I wanna do asmany as they'll have us do. And
then we'll just our reach,market wise is not as good as I
would like it to be because Ifeel like if we put it out more,
(26:51):
we could we could draw morebusiness for selling those teas.
But, yeah, whenever since I knowyou're part of their
organization too, And then, theyjust also have that new retreat
that they purchased, also.
Oh, yeah, at Green Oaks Ranch?Yeah. Send us whatever and we'll
design stuff all day long, everyday to help grow, hopefully,
some more revenue to help thatorganization. Oh, that's great.
Bret (27:13):
I love it. I love the the innovation in that. Right? And
solutions loves it too. They'vetold me.
I mean, they they love howyou've created, like, a a
partnership, you know, with themfor that. And that's so cool.
And so just to make sure peopleare aware, like, if they're
like, these guys are so cool. Ireally appreciate, you know,
(27:35):
your approach to how you dothings. Best place for them to
reach you is your website?
Chris Swimley (27:40):
Yeah. Website, machineprintshop.com. And then
our email's on there,contactmachineprintshop, and
then you can follow us onInstagram. We try to do kind of
a funny Instagram thing. Jared,my, sales and marketing guide
that runs all of that, and soyou can see a lot of work we've
done for people.
We're we're revamping thewebsite now. We're revamping our
showroom. We're completely doinga whole brand new little thing.
(28:02):
Like, we have we have a niceoffice with a recording studio
and a little bar and all that,but we've kinda decided to make
something, take it to anotherlevel to make it even nicer and
have more products. So if youwanna come by our office and
visit us, I'd love to haveanybody over there to check out
samples.
And, yeah, but email or meetingus
Bret (28:20):
in person would love to help anybody who needs it. Very
nice. So, most people who have,like, a print shop aren't
explaining about their recordingstudio in their office. Yeah.
Chris Swimley (28:31):
Well, it's funny because I mean fun. I think a
lot of guys in my in in thisindustry are production guys.
Yeah. You know? And so this thethe the place that I got my job
in in Austin Yeah.
That was one thing that reallyset them apart. They had the the
most the best showroom in thewhole, city. And so people would
come and be like, Wow, here'sthis table with all these shirts
(28:51):
and it's all organized and hats.And I was like, As a person
trying to sell for the firsttime and not knowing anything
about it, it was a huge tool asan asset. And so I wanted that
for my company and to make it asfun as cool as possible.
We're we're trying to buy aplace right now. We're actually
leasing our our our place, whichisn't bad, but I I do wanna take
it to another level. I want itto be a whole experience where
people come in. They wanna hangout, and and it is a great
(29:13):
selling point because they wannacome back and and visit us and
stuff too. So I love that.
Bret (29:18):
I know you shared a little bit earlier that you're part one
of our Netforce groups.
Chris Swimley (29:23):
Yeah. And,
Bret (29:24):
you know, not everybody listening maybe knows, but
Netforce is a Chamber version.Some people are familiar with,
like, BNI or something likethat, where you have, like,
industry exclusive members thatyou guys meet weekly. Your group
meets on Wednesdays?
Chris Swimley (29:38):
Wednesdays at 8AM, and, we we're looking for
members. Nice. But we got agreat team of people. I've I've
been in it, I think, about ayear and a half now. Yeah.
And, it just helps in so manyways, not just the referrals,
but just, like, everybodytalking about their businesses,
giving strategies to each otherand Nice. I mean Like a
mastermind group? Yeah. I mean,you never know. And it's like we
(29:59):
just even the last meeting, I I,you know, I stumble upon
different businesses orindustries that I I wanna get
into just out of sheerrandomness, and then all of a
sudden you realize the person inyour group has all these
connections.
Nice. And so and, I mean, it'sbeen a year and a half, and I'm
that was a brand new thing thatwe stumbled upon. Oh, I know
that person that that you'reright. That is a good thing, but
you're constantly in eachother's thoughts, and we've all
(30:19):
referred each other business.Love it.
So, it's been huge, and I I planon sticking with it
indefinitely, you know?
Bret (30:26):
Love it. So Love it. Well, appreciate that. Well, thank you
for taking the time to come downand share your journey. It's a
fascinating journey.
I'm literally gonna have my, myson, who's a budding musician,
listen to this episode.
Chris Swimley (30:40):
Yeah. And any any I can give him any kind of,
like, some advice as far aspitfalls and his instrument he
plays again? He's Keys. Oh,that's I like I yeah. We we we
yeah.
We ran into the Jazz Festival.Yeah. Yes. Which was also the,
trying to remember. It's, whichjazz festival?
That was one
Bret (30:57):
of oh, probably over here at, at, Saint Michael's at the
Carlsbad Jazz Festival.
Chris Swimley (31:01):
Yeah. So we yeah. We did their merch, and amazing
people at church is beautiful.Anybody who wants to go see some
jazz, I I haven't gone to thatfest. But, yeah.
The keys are the best instrumentto play. Yeah. You play with
anybody, highly sought afterbecause there's there's not many
around. So he he he definitely
Bret (31:17):
picked a good instrument. Very cool. Well, thank you,
Chris. Appreciate you guys, andthank you for coming down to
share today.
Chris Swimley (31:23):
Hey. Thanks for having
Bret (31:24):
me. It was my pleasure. Thanks for joining us today on
our Carlsbad People, Purpose,and Impact podcast. If you got
value out of our episode today,please hit the follow button on
your favorite podcast app, andplease tell a friend. Can't wait
to see you next time on CarlsbadPeople, Purpose, and Impact.
Carlsbad. People, purpose, and impact. An
essential podcast for those wholive, work, visit, and play in
Carlsbad.
Bret (00:14):
Good afternoon, and welcome, everyone. My name is
Brett Schonzenbach. I am thepresident and CEO of the
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce,and I'm once again your host
today, and I am excited to havewith me Chris Swimley. Chris is
the owner of Machine Print Shop.Good afternoon, Chris.
Thanks for joining
Chris Swimley (00:31):
me today. Good afternoon, Brett.
Bret (00:33):
Thanks for having me. Yeah. Good to have you. Good to
get you down here. And so I wasdigging into your background,
you know, doing some deep FBItype work on no.
Just kidding. Nice. I saw thatyou had, your your bachelor's
degree was from San FranciscoState University. So are you a a
(00:54):
native Californian?
Chris Swimley (00:55):
Yeah. Born and raised Northern California,
kinda just South Of Tahoe andjust the tiniest of tiny towns
in the middle of nowhere. And,yeah.
Bret (01:06):
What what town? You gotta give a shout
Chris Swimley (01:07):
out to me? El Dorado Hills. I mean, it's more
of a thing now than it was.There was only a grocery store
there when I Okay. When I movedthere.
And then, like, McDonald's wasthe big thing
Bret (01:15):
Right.
Chris Swimley (01:15):
When I moved in. And, yeah. And then I was there
for, you know, till high schooland, just just Sacramento was
the big town and, my little moreof my hobby and my passion was
music. Mhmm. And just out ofsheer luck, I I had a there was
a music shop about, say, fortyminutes away or something.
(01:38):
It was pretty far. And I Istarted taking drum lessons. And
so my whole goal in life wasjust to to be a touring
musician. Nice. And, so when Ifinally moved to, like, 18 or
so, a buddy of mine had was hadmoved up to Utah in Salt Lake
and, went out there and, like,started my musical career.
But, yeah, that's kinda there'sthere wasn't much that happened
(02:00):
in where I grew up in except fora lot of music practice because
there wasn't really anythinggoing on there.
Bret (02:06):
No place to do jams and, not a lot of gigs going on?
Chris Swimley (02:09):
Yeah. I mean, we would me and my brother were in
a band. He actually ended upgetting into guitar, and then he
had a friend who played bass.But we would we would just kinda
play at the little, I mean,coffee shops. Right.
Right. Right. And, I will say inSacramento, which was, like,
considered back then the bigscary city, you know, for us, I
had some friends in bands that Iwould go see. And one of them
(02:30):
was actually my sales guy now.Oh, funny.
And, he was, like, in thepopular band. His name's Jared,
and his band was, Low FlyingOwls. And they went on to some
pretty good success. And it waswe just knew of each other just
because we were in the same hegrew up in a town just literally
a couple miles away from me.Okay.
And, so we, like, reconnectedout of just weird serendipity
(02:52):
here. And then, and, yeah, nowwe're doing music together
again. I guess it was like thiskind of full circle thing Right.
Childhood. So
Bret (03:01):
And so, wait, in all that, when did you head over to San
Francisco State University? So,
Chris Swimley (03:07):
I I lived in Salt Lake for about five years, and I
and I I had some real goodsuccess with music. Yeah. I got
in this band, and we we had alarge following. We started
touring everywhere. And, I endedup meeting my wife at one
Bret (03:20):
of the concerts. Nice. And, one of those, like, classic
movie based love stories. Right?Yeah.
Chris Swimley (03:27):
She saw me twirling the sticks and she,
she's all Selfies. The thedream, the goal of of being a
musician. That's right. But, sheended up we ended up, relocating
the band to to Los Angeles. And,I went through all kinds of
musical fun escapades, recorddeals, and all kinds of stuff.
But it just didn't really panout for us in LA. Yeah. And, the
(03:49):
band broke up, and and then mywife got into UC Berkeley. Okay.
And then that's what got us tothe Bay Area.
And I always wanted to be in theBay Area. And, from there, you
know, I was playing music, gotin bigger bands, did more
touring, and then got just tiredof being poor. Yeah. Yeah.
Because I was, like, a I was a astudio musician.
(04:11):
I was the goal to be a studiomusician. Yeah. And just, you
know, Napster happened when Iwas living in LA. Oh. And so all
the record companies, like, wentout of business and, like, with
how we used to be able to makemoney back in the day just
wasn't happening anymore.
And so I was like, well, I stillwanna do music, but I gotta
figure out a way to how can Imake this lucrative? And, you
(04:32):
know, we used to always sellmerch Yep. In bands, and you
couldn't sell music. I was like,well, I'll I'll just delve into
the the the merch. The merchside.
Yeah. And try to figure out howto make more money off of that
and learn about it, and it seemsreally fascinating. And I'm an
artist. I've always been anartist, so I thought I'd be a
graphic designer for t shirts.And then that's how that that
was is what got me to go to SanFrancisco State, to have
Bret (04:51):
a graphic designer. That's wild. So from the the glory
slash challenge of playing in aband to, like, making it pencil
financially is what led you toyour current path.
Chris Swimley (05:04):
Yeah. I was gonna say, when I went to the Bay
Area, I ended up I was doing myown thing because I got tired of
bands breaking up. And when thesinger left, you just lost
everything. You would commityears to being in a band. Like,
I was in a band for five years.
I got a a big record deal in LA,and then the the singer just
didn't wanna do it anymore. Oh.He quit. Yeah. So, so I was
like, okay.
That's it. I'm being the boss.So as I'm doing that, I was
(05:25):
like, okay. Well, then I gottafigure out the the merch. And,
but it was crazy because thelast big band I was in, they
were actually signed by Googleand Dreamworks.
Wow. And they couldn't figureout how to make any money off
the music. And so, You've
Bret (05:41):
been being signed by such big opportunities like that.
Chris Swimley (05:44):
I mean, a lot of it is luck and your music
catching on and all that stuff.And, I mean, there's obviously
still people making music today.But, like, when I saw that
happen, I'm like, woah. Okay. SoI gotta rethink the music thing
of these guys, and they're supertalented and amazing band.
And we tour on a tour bus andall stuff. And, I was like, I
gotta delve into this merchthing to try to figure out
because there's definitelypeople making money, but it's,
like, live shows and merch. Andthat's why I went back to school
(06:04):
at San Francisco State, longstory short. So
Bret (06:07):
Wow. That is that is wild. So I gotta I gotta tell you. So
my youngest son is a jazz musicmajor at MiraCosta right now.
Chris Swimley (06:17):
Oh, awesome.
Bret (06:18):
Hoping to switch to Cal State Fullerton or someplace
like that in the in the fall.But, when he chose that path,
one of his, coaches in the musicbiz said to him, if you can
imagine yourself doing anythingother than music, do that. And
he's like, he goes, but ifyou're really set on doing this,
(06:41):
because then we gotta changeeverything. You have to come out
of college completely debt freebecause you're gonna be poor.
Yeah.
That's exactly what he toldthem.
Chris Swimley (06:48):
Well, you know, it's funny because, yeah,
there's everybody the the crazything about music that everybody
tells you is, like, they ally'all have your own path. Right?
It's like everybody figures outtheir own way of success, but it
still is a business. Yeah. Andand there's there's some guys
that I really am into, acts thatnever got big deals, but are
successful ones a a friend of,we grew up with who actually
(07:08):
landed a big deal and didn'twork out, but he still just does
it on his own.
There's definitely a way to doit, but I think, like, if you're
gonna be a musician, have somekind of career, like like my
business is yeah. I'm I'm ableto it runs itself. I could tour
if I wanted to. So you can it'sflexible. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So you can be makingmoney and doing it and never,
like I've I've always justwanted to do it because I love
(07:28):
doing it.
Bret (07:29):
Exactly. The passion.
Chris Swimley (07:30):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it would be great to pay
your bills with it, and I kindadid for about five years. That's
all I did full time. But, Imean, when you, it is it is it
is like winning the lottery.
It's really tough. But if youbut if you can build your own
business and be doing thatconsistently from the beginning,
which I didn't do. I wentthrough the whole idea of, like,
studio musician, play for bigacts, tour all over the place,
(07:51):
that pays your money. But thenwhen I moved to LA, there was
literally five guys who weremaking money doing it. They were
touring all the time.
You know, they have no you haveno personal life because you
gotta be gone all the time. Yep.And so, you know, I definitely
was gonna be in
Bret (08:03):
the top five. Yeah. That's tough. That's elite.
Chris Swimley (08:06):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and there's really it's not
you come to find out that's notwhat you think it is either
because when Right. I got tiredof work being an employee for
people.
Yeah. And they set these crazytouring schedules, and a lot of
them don't make sense. And, And
Bret (08:19):
that was interesting too, which you said, like, when when
the band you were part of in LAcaught on and finally did get
something big lined up, one oneof the key players just says,
yeah. I'm bored. I'm done. I'msick of it, whatever. And the
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chris Swimley (08:31):
Things
Bret (08:32):
fall apart. For everybody.
Chris Swimley (08:33):
Yeah. Yeah. That's So if you're in charge,
you know, like like a business,it never has to end. The players
can constantly change. And thenyou're always kind of doing
something you like to do too.
Some my brother's a phenomenalguitar player. He tours. He
still does all that stuff.Awesome. And but he likes being
that side guy.
But, yeah, he's he's living handto mouth. Yeah. And and he
doesn't wanna do anything else,which he he easily could and be
could be living comfortable.Right. But, you know, I'd I met
(08:57):
my wife.
I wanted her to have a nicelife. I wanted to Yeah. Have a
house. I wanna have dogs. Yeah.
You know? So it's like yeah.
Bret (09:03):
A little different little different experience. So I we
got as far as you guys being inthe Bay Area, but I know from
meeting you a couple years backand getting to know you that
before machine print shop gotestablished here in North
County, you got established inAustin, Texas. So Yeah. What
jumped you from the Bay Area toAustin?
Chris Swimley (09:25):
I really didn't wanna leave the Bay Area. It was
amazing, but it was yeah. Wegetting out of college, I mean,
my wife made, like, $40, and Imade I worked at the only place
I could get a job, it was, like,a depression. It was a it was a
great job, a climbing gym acrossthe street from our apartment.
Bret (09:40):
Yep. And, What year what year are we talking here? For
fifteen.
Chris Swimley (09:45):
Okay. Until no. No. No. Because I've been doing
this for fifteen years.
Maybe seventeen years ago? Yeah.Yeah. That sounds about right.
Bret (09:51):
Oh, yes. Like, 08/00/2009. Yeah.
Chris Swimley (09:52):
Yeah. Yeah. Because I
Bret (09:53):
I did That's when it was brutal.
Chris Swimley (09:55):
Yeah. It was it was it was and crash and
Everything. Everything. Economyis terrible. So I was literally,
yeah, working at the climbinggym.
But the good thing about theclimbing gym was they, they need
a graphic designer. Oh. So Iwould work the front desk. I
gotta climb all day long. It wasa walk across the street, but I
was doing graphic design.
At the same time. At the sametime for the gym. So shirts and
(10:15):
posters and all stuff and reallyjust learning. You're kind of,
like, honing your craft a bit.Yeah.
That's awesome. And, so then Iwas applying for jobs. And I
wanted to be in the Bay Area,but I couldn't find anything. So
that literally applyingeverywhere. But as when I was at
the gym, you have all theseclimbers going, like and there
was just it was like in azeitgeist.
Ice Austin is the place to be.It's super cheap. It's
beautiful. Tons of music there.It's, like, music capital.
(10:37):
I was like, oh, this is great. Ican go there and and and, you
know, maybe meet a bunch moremusicians and the tons of
venues. So I was like, I justapplied, and I got a job out
there. So you guys just moved?Yeah.
I went sight unseen. Wow. Youknow, just used my credit card
to pay for everything because Ididn't sound like I had any
cash. I just had a crappy HondaCivic with a million miles on
(10:58):
it. Drove drove cross country.
You know? Just like it was, bymyself. And, there's a real I'll
try to tell this as quick aspossible because this is kinda
just to show you the stuff youcan deal with. But so I move all
the way out there. The guy hiresme at this company, and, but he
hires another artist at the sametime.
(11:19):
Right?
Bret (11:20):
Okay.
Chris Swimley (11:20):
So I'm like, this is awesome. I I got a buddy that
also had a a woman who was incharge of me. She was actually a
a bit younger than me. She waskinda like my boss. And I'm
doing t shirts, and it goesabout, I don't know, three weeks
to a month.
And my wife's like, I found anapartment. So she quits her job.
She's she's packing up. Wedidn't have much of anything, so
it wasn't like anything to pack.And she's heading her way, with
(11:42):
her dad, you know, so she didn'thave to drive by herself.
And the the guy just I'm like,hey, man. What am I getting
paid? It's been, like, a month.Yeah. I, I go in there, and, and
he's like, well, what what doyou wanna what's your hour what
do you wanna get hourly?
And I'm like, hey. This is allfigured out when I started this
job. Yeah. We about $15 an hour,which was, you know, not a lot
(12:03):
Yeah. Back then.
I mean, it's like, I was enoughto survive. Well, Austin was
much cheaper. I will set. Yeah.But, he's like, no.
It's way too high. What? So thenhe goes, She's gonna be kidding
me. And I'm broke, and I'm justusing my credit card to pay for
everything. You know what I'msaying?
And, and my wife's in the carwith her dad, and, and he got me
down to $11. And then, That isbrutal. And then, so then and he
(12:27):
says, hey. Send the other guyin. Like, literally after, and
then he and then guy comes in.
And let me guess. He took 10. Hetook 10, and I got fired. And he
didn't even fire me himself. Hesent the this little girl in who
was my boss.
He was the one who actuallykinda picked me. She, like which
I felt great. I was like, hey.This lady Yeah. Picked me out of
a a bunch, and that must meanI'm good.
And, but then it literally putme on the streets with my wife
(12:50):
coming in route. And so what Idid, which was ended up being
the best thing that everhappened me, it was the worst,
lowest park. I think I'm justbroke. I don't have a job. I
have an apartment.
Why is this moving here? Iliterally just walked into every
single place in town, and Ijust, like, begged for work.
And, the last shop I went toneeded a sales guy, like, an
entry level salesperson. Andthey, they liked me and ended up
(13:12):
hiring me in sales because I hadthe background in the drawing.
Right, in the graphic design,and I and that's what I'd wanted
to do.
Yeah. And from there, they theyactually ended up paying me $9
an hour with a, I think it was3% commission. And and so I was
just like, I'm committing myselfto this. I'm gonna make it
happen. And it actually was thebest thing that ever happened to
(13:32):
me because I learned everythingI needed to know about running
my own business.
They had phenomenal artdepartment, so I learned
everything you could possiblylearn about doing artwork for
apparel with some of the mostthe best artists in town. Nice.
And, it led to me having my owncompany.
Bret (13:48):
Man, what a journey, dude. That is crazy. I mean, that is
just so wrong on so many levels.I'm, like, I can feel the hair
standing up on the back of myneck when you hear people get
treated that way. And I
Chris Swimley (14:02):
was just like, ah. And that's not even the
worst thing I went throughowning my own business. Anybody
who owns their own business, asyou might even know and you've
probably heard a millionstories, the pitfalls are
insane. But, like, then therewards are just equally great.
So how many years was it betweentaking that position and
starting your own shop?
(14:22):
I wanna say it was maybe oh, itwas like eight or nine years.
Maybe almost ten years. Yeah. II hit a ceiling with them. The
the the people that were runningthe company just they you know,
it wasn't working out.
Sure. And I was the lead salesguy. I was training people
constantly because of the waythey ran their company. No one
(14:44):
wanted to stay with them. And soI just knew long term I would
have loved to stay, but longterm, it wouldn't have worked
out.
And that's when I decided
Bret (14:52):
to make the leap. I pushed you to start your own. So you
started it there in Austin. Andthen so you guys are both
Northern CalifornianCalifornianers. I'm not sure I'm
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Norcalers. And youend up in Austin, and you start
this shop. What prompted you tostart a satellite shop or a
(15:13):
second shop here in Vista, inNorth County?
So I
Chris Swimley (15:18):
had a family member who had the ability to do
production in Mexico. They justhad access to a warehouse that
sold me on the the the fact thatit was so inexpensive to do and,
that we could set it up. And soI was doing my own, business on
nights and weekends only, so Ididn't let it affect my day job.
(15:38):
I would just punch out at fiveand work sometimes till 03:00 in
the morning, prospecting,emailing, calling, doing
everything I did all day long,only at night, and then not
trying to compete with, youknow, my the area, you know. And
so, once I had the I'd I'dlanded a few large promotional
product customers.
Nice. And so that put a lot ofcash in the bank. And so once I
(16:02):
landed my first real whale, Ihad two options. So, like, one
was, like, pay my house off,stick where I'm at, and then
just keep building the funds upagain. It was like an I had a
sizable amount of money.
I was coming in on a pretty goodregular basis. Or, like, this
connection I have in Mexico,maybe I could take advantage of
it and do, like, a lot put mymoney somewhere like an
(16:22):
investment for long term. So Iput, like, maybe, I don't know,
quarter million up to halfmillion dollars into this
factory building it up and Wow.And, getting the equipment in
there and and then building upthe business. And the first big
hit I had was when it was, like,just on fire because we did land
some really big clients who weredoing really, really high
volume, 30,000 shirts a week.
(16:43):
Wow. COVID hits. Oh. You know?Just just as we're, like Yeah.
Really just turning, burning.And, so then I I just, out of
sheer luck and tenacity, endedup selling insane amounts of
masks and hand sanitizers. Wow.Because I've been in the
promotional product business,you know? Yeah.
Yeah. And that just, like, heldme over till it opened up the
(17:07):
you know, just, like, literallypaid them for my overhead, broke
even. And, when when thathappened, I just realized, first
of all, it was just so dangerousdown there just to to operate
and stuff like that, and thenthat my business partners were
were basically ripping me off,and and it wasn't working out. I
I had to I had to walk away fromthe the operation. But it ended
up being for the best.
(17:27):
The margins were really small.The customers were really
terrible. They're really mean.Their terms are very long. It's
really hard to get paid.
And Austin was just booming.Yeah. So all the work I did in
Austin was was making up forwhatever I was losing in Mexico.
Mhmm. So I was like, okay.
We're just and then Austin'seven moving now. We're just
gonna grow Austin, and then I'mgonna try to do what we did in
Austin here. So that's when Igot my office in Vista and,
(17:49):
started connecting with thechambers and really focusing on
growing this area. And it's beengoing great ever since I met you
guys. Carlsbad Chamber was thefirst chamber I signed up for.
Nice. Signed up for Netforce andmet a lot of great people, and
it just got me in the mix. Soit's like Carlsbad connected me,
got me going, went into, VistaChamber of Commerce got me
going, Oceanside. Now we're inSan Marcos. And we just feel
(18:10):
really well connected, and andwe're growing like crazy.
That is awesome.
Bret (18:14):
This is a great place to take a quick pause. We're
talking to Chris Swimley, theowner of Machine Print Shop.
When we come back, we're gonnatalk about all the different
things that they offer and howyou can take advantage of it.
Stay with us. We'll be rightback.
(19:27):
So, Chris, we were talking aboutyour journey, man. That's been
that was quite a journey, thatgot you to this point and and
even the steps that led you tocome out here to the beautiful
North County. So let's telleverybody what you guys offer at
Machine Print Shop because Iknow I've been the beneficiary.
I'm gonna talk about a coupleprojects that we've been
(19:49):
connected with together. But,tell everything that you guys
offer.
Chris Swimley (19:54):
So, yeah, we do custom branded merchandise.
That's apparel, with shirts,hats, and then promotional
products. And, you know, it'spretty broad when it comes to
the promotional products. Yeah.You know, if anything from,
like, a tent and table cloth toI just did I'm doing an order
(20:14):
now for I wanna say oh, yeah.
It's gonna be 250,000 bone dogbag dispensers. Just like the
most random stuff all you know?
Bret (20:25):
Oh my god.
Chris Swimley (20:26):
And, so I was gonna ask
Bret (20:28):
you, what's the weirdest thing you've ever done, but I
think you covered it already.
Chris Swimley (20:32):
Oh, yeah. That's a pretty weird one. I've done
some crazy ones. Like, I Iremember it was one mass order I
did was Moscow mule mugs. Ican't remember what they're made
out of copper or something, outof turkey.
Bret (20:43):
Oh my god.
Chris Swimley (20:43):
And I was doing and then I just it was this
vodka company, and they justwanted tons of them. And I just,
out of sheer luck, found a founda source. And that was a that
was a moneymaker till it becamea fad, and everybody started
just stealing them. Oh. So thencompanies couldn't afford to do
them.
Oh, wow. But,
Bret (20:58):
That's crazy.
Chris Swimley (20:59):
But I I wanna say that the one thing, I guess,
that really sets us apart, Iguess, is that I I had a huge
focus because I'm an artist toois the the graphic design. Yeah.
And, that might lead you to the
Bret (21:07):
Yeah. So, we were celebrating in 2023. We
celebrated our wait. It was2023. Right?
No. Let me think about that.Twenty twenty four. I'm sorry.
In 2024, we were celebrating ourfiftieth anniversary of our
street fair.
And so we did a graphic designcontest to have the t shirt at,
like, a memorial you know, whatdo you call it? Yeah. Memorial t
(21:31):
shirt. Is that the right word?
Chris Swimley (21:32):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
Bret (21:33):
you know, to to celebrate that fiftieth anniversary, we
did a graphic design contest.And your design that you
personally drew up won, whichwas super fun. And when we did
the it was the staff. We wevoted, and we had all these
different designs that weresubmitted. And and you know
there were submissions fromlocal graphic design students at
the high schools and stuff whichwas cool and we didn't as we
(21:55):
were judging we had no ideawhose design was whose.
I think one of our staff membersknew because when yours won she
was like oh I was hoping hiswon. And I'm like, why? Whose is
it? I didn't even know it wasyours. I'm like, Kathleen.
Yeah.
Chris Swimley (22:08):
She was she was super
Bret (22:10):
excited that yours won. And and, but then once we
figured out it was yours, wewere all equally like, oh,
that's super cool. And so notonly did you design it, but then
you printed them for us and wesold them all year at our street
fair last year. But then, youguys helped us out. One of the
super cool projects here in inSan Diego North County is, the
(22:34):
Kindness Matters project.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So cool. Andour friends at Kids for Peace,
you know, had a really cool signmade, kind of a Hollywood, style
sign made that they gotdisplayed over there in the
displayed over there in theStrawberry Fields off the five
Freeway heading north on the 5Freeway.
And you know, it's it's a it's acool sign and, the wood shop
(22:59):
classes at Carlsbad Highdesigned the letter or cut out
the letters and then this, youknow, the pieces were sent out
to all the different elementaryschools and so each school
painted one letter and it and itall came together. And when when
you drive by, it's actuallydifficult to take a photo of it
because it is literally right onthe Fife Freeway. There's no
real frontage roads there. Sounless you're visiting the
(23:20):
strawberry fields and get outand take a picture, it's hard.
But even when you have a photo,as you know, the words kindness
and the words matter overlapped.
And so we brought a photo to youguys, and you extrapolated it.
You separated the words, whichwe needed for two projects, and
then, and then you filled in themissing pieces. So graphically,
(23:43):
I mean, we really appreciate youguys being able to do that.
Chris Swimley (23:46):
I love doing that stuff. I would do some of those,
you know, you take photographsand you do funny things with
them and and then I would dothat with my buddies a lot. And
so I always really enjoyedPhotoshop. And and just to let
you know, it's an honor for youguys to for for me for you to to
pick us for the contest and forthe Kindness Matters. So I
really appreciate you guys doingthat.
But, yeah, whatever you need,I'm happy to help the Chamber.
(24:08):
You guys have been, an insanehelp to us in growing our
business and connecting us andall that. So we're we're all
very grateful Yeah. And, meespecially. And so whatever we
can do to help, and, we're we'rethere for you guys.
Bret (24:23):
I appreciate that. And the that artwork that you helped us
create, you know, is now a tshirt that you've printed for us
and is available on our websiteif you'd like to purchase one.
They're very cool. And, I don'tknow how many more shirts we
have in the first run, butthere's already plans on making
a second run. Probably Awesome.
Probably changing up instead ofa we did get some people saying,
(24:46):
oh, I don't wear white t shirts,and we didn't really think about
that. We went with a white basewhen we talked to you because
most of the t shirts we do hereat the Chamber for, I don't not
it wasn't planned this way, butmost of them are black. Yeah. So
we're like, we gotta mix it up.And so we went with white, and
then people are like, oh, Idon't wear white.
And we're like, okay. We needanother
Chris Swimley (25:02):
It is really funny because, like, yeah. In
Austin, the number one color tshirt we wore is black, and it
was couldn't and we couldn'tlive in a hotter place. Right.
You know? And and I've alwaysI've just loved white T shirts
because I just I probably grewfrom living in Austin just being
so hot.
Yeah. But, yeah, it's, like, forwhatever reason, it's not a
thing. I've always gotta do somekinda everybody wants a color.
It's I have no clue why. That is
Bret (25:24):
Yeah. But you guys I we just appreciate, like, you guys'
ability to to do this from agraphic standpoint, but then
also, you know, being able toprint the shirts. We've really
enjoyed working with your withyour company and getting to know
you guys. I also know from beingon the Board of Directors at
Solutions for Change, you'vecreated a cool project there.
(25:45):
Why don't you share about that?
Cool idea.
Chris Swimley (25:47):
And we and we want to do more. And and so with
them, teamed up mostly withJason in the marketing
department. We've created twodesigns. They're on our website.
You can buy them and all theproceeds go to solutions.
But, so when I moved out hereand I've been wanting to get
involved in some kind ofcharity. What's crazy about here
is there's so many. First, whenI was in Austin, I never even
(26:10):
was aware I know there's aChamber of Commerce now, but I
didn't know of the Chamber ofCommerce. The business I was in
didn't deal with it. And then,like, I had no access to really
much of any much of a charity oranything.
Oh, I did find one when I justbefore I left, and it's a nice,
organization that helps homelessand a very interesting it's
Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
Bret (26:28):
Mobile Loaves and Fishes. I'm one of them. Yep.
Chris Swimley (26:29):
Yeah. And so I wanna get involved with that in
some shape or form. I just Ididn't get a chance to before I
left. But so of all the ones Icame across, Solutions, to me,
was the coolest Yeah. In whatthey do.
And so we've we just barely, Ithink, touched it. We've just
done two designs. I wanna do asmany as they'll have us do. And
then we'll just our reach,market wise is not as good as I
would like it to be because Ifeel like if we put it out more,
(26:51):
we could we could draw morebusiness for selling those teas.
But, yeah, whenever since I knowyou're part of their
organization too, And then, theyjust also have that new retreat
that they purchased, also.
Oh, yeah, at Green Oaks Ranch?Yeah. Send us whatever and we'll
design stuff all day long, everyday to help grow, hopefully,
some more revenue to help thatorganization. Oh, that's great.
Bret (27:13):
I love it. I love the the innovation in that. Right? And
solutions loves it too. They'vetold me.
I mean, they they love howyou've created, like, a a
partnership, you know, with themfor that. And that's so cool.
And so just to make sure peopleare aware, like, if they're
like, these guys are so cool. Ireally appreciate, you know,
(27:35):
your approach to how you dothings. Best place for them to
reach you is your website?
Chris Swimley (27:40):
Yeah. Website, machineprintshop.com. And then
our email's on there,contactmachineprintshop, and
then you can follow us onInstagram. We try to do kind of
a funny Instagram thing. Jared,my, sales and marketing guide
that runs all of that, and soyou can see a lot of work we've
done for people.
We're we're revamping thewebsite now. We're revamping our
showroom. We're completely doinga whole brand new little thing.
(28:02):
Like, we have we have a niceoffice with a recording studio
and a little bar and all that,but we've kinda decided to make
something, take it to anotherlevel to make it even nicer and
have more products. So if youwanna come by our office and
visit us, I'd love to haveanybody over there to check out
samples.
And, yeah, but email or meetingus
Bret (28:20):
in person would love to help anybody who needs it. Very
nice. So, most people who have,like, a print shop aren't
explaining about their recordingstudio in their office. Yeah.
Chris Swimley (28:31):
Well, it's funny because I mean fun. I think a
lot of guys in my in in thisindustry are production guys.
Yeah. You know? And so this thethe the place that I got my job
in in Austin Yeah.
That was one thing that reallyset them apart. They had the the
most the best showroom in thewhole, city. And so people would
come and be like, Wow, here'sthis table with all these shirts
(28:51):
and it's all organized and hats.And I was like, As a person
trying to sell for the firsttime and not knowing anything
about it, it was a huge tool asan asset. And so I wanted that
for my company and to make it asfun as cool as possible.
We're we're trying to buy aplace right now. We're actually
leasing our our our place, whichisn't bad, but I I do wanna take
it to another level. I want itto be a whole experience where
people come in. They wanna hangout, and and it is a great
(29:13):
selling point because they wannacome back and and visit us and
stuff too. So I love that.
Bret (29:18):
I know you shared a little bit earlier that you're part one
of our Netforce groups.
Chris Swimley (29:23):
Yeah. And,
Bret (29:24):
you know, not everybody listening maybe knows, but
Netforce is a Chamber version.Some people are familiar with,
like, BNI or something likethat, where you have, like,
industry exclusive members thatyou guys meet weekly. Your group
meets on Wednesdays?
Chris Swimley (29:38):
Wednesdays at 8AM, and, we we're looking for
members. Nice. But we got agreat team of people. I've I've
been in it, I think, about ayear and a half now. Yeah.
And, it just helps in so manyways, not just the referrals,
but just, like, everybodytalking about their businesses,
giving strategies to each otherand Nice. I mean Like a
mastermind group? Yeah. I mean,you never know. And it's like we
(29:59):
just even the last meeting, I I,you know, I stumble upon
different businesses orindustries that I I wanna get
into just out of sheerrandomness, and then all of a
sudden you realize the person inyour group has all these
connections.
Nice. And so and, I mean, it'sbeen a year and a half, and I'm
that was a brand new thing thatwe stumbled upon. Oh, I know
that person that that you'reright. That is a good thing, but
you're constantly in eachother's thoughts, and we've all
(30:19):
referred each other business.Love it.
So, it's been huge, and I I planon sticking with it
indefinitely, you know?
Bret (30:26):
Love it. So Love it. Well, appreciate that. Well, thank you
for taking the time to come downand share your journey. It's a
fascinating journey.
I'm literally gonna have my, myson, who's a budding musician,
listen to this episode.
Chris Swimley (30:40):
Yeah. And any any I can give him any kind of,
like, some advice as far aspitfalls and his instrument he
plays again? He's Keys. Oh,that's I like I yeah. We we we
yeah.
We ran into the Jazz Festival.Yeah. Yes. Which was also the,
trying to remember. It's, whichjazz festival?
That was one
Bret (30:57):
of oh, probably over here at, at, Saint Michael's at the
Carlsbad Jazz Festival.
Chris Swimley (31:01):
Yeah. So we yeah. We did their merch, and amazing
people at church is beautiful.Anybody who wants to go see some
jazz, I I haven't gone to thatfest. But, yeah.
The keys are the best instrumentto play. Yeah. You play with
anybody, highly sought afterbecause there's there's not many
around. So he he he definitely
Bret (31:17):
picked a good instrument. Very cool. Well, thank you,
Chris. Appreciate you guys, andthank you for coming down to
share today.
Chris Swimley (31:23):
Hey. Thanks for having
Bret (31:24):
me. It was my pleasure. Thanks for joining us today on
our Carlsbad People, Purpose,and Impact podcast. If you got
value out of our episode today,please hit the follow button on
your favorite podcast app, andplease tell a friend. Can't wait
to see you next time on CarlsbadPeople, Purpose, and Impact.
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