May 27, 2025 • 56 mins
In this episode of Printing's Alive, Warren Werbitt is joined by Paul Stead, Georgina Hebbard, and Lara Vigar to delve into the Young People in Print (YPIP) initiative and its significance for the industry. The discussion covers the guests' backgrounds and their journey into print, highlighting programs like ASL's apprenticeship and the Printing Charity's Rising Stars. They explore the transition from social media to print, emotional connections to the medium, and the importance of diversity. The conversation addresses gender and age demographics, funding for YPIP, and perceptions among youth. Emphasizing communication across generations, the episode encourages young individuals to consider print careers and discusses AI's evolving role.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Hey, welcome back to another edition Printing'sAlive.
And today we have a wild episode.
Now it's not that wild.
We have a really good episode today.
Today, we've got a couple's guests special.
All my guests are special.
You hear me say that every week.
We've got Paul Steed.
We've got Lara Vigor, and we've got GeorginaHebert.
Did I get all the names right, first of all?
(00:32):
No.
I didn't, I never do.
It's also because they're probably in purple onthe screen and I'm trying to read them.
So why don't you all introduce yourself for aminute and tell us a little bit about what you
do?
Okay, Paul, you go first.
It's Paul Stead rhymes with bread or dead,which is a funny thing.
(00:53):
Sometimes when I answer the phone, I say Paul'sdead.
Paul's dead.
I hear people say I didn't know he was ill.
Rude, just plain rude.
But I work in the commercial print sector atASL supplying printers, digital printers,
offset printers, inkjet printers to the world.
But I'm also a founding member of anorganization called Young People in Print which
(01:14):
is what we're here to talk about.
So we'll forget about printers and focus onyoung people in print when you're good and
ready.
I'm old, I'm past it, I need to be replaced,the whole object of white is to get rid of this
from the print industry and replace it withthese two, and these two work at ASL.
So Georgina over to you.
(01:35):
So I'm Georgina Hebbard.
I'm the customer success team leader at ASL.
So sort of manage the contact center, incomingqueries, that kind of thing, make sure
customers have their toner, make sure servicerequests are logged, whether that's myself
doing that or the team and sort of progressingmyself and the team sort of through that.
(01:58):
Cool.
Lara?
I'm Lara Weigard.
I'm the billing senior and I build all thecustomer meters, do all the invoicing, queries,
credits if needed and then also do lots ofcomplaints as well.
So you manage the money and the grief?
(02:19):
Pretty much.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
Well, we're gonna have some good questionsabout that after in some of your customers.
But let's get started with Paul.
I always thought it was steed or is it stead?
Stead.
Stead.
Stead.
Okay.
I thought
it was the other one.
Anyways, doesn't matter.
You're here.
So the reason we're here today, folks,everybody listening is Paul was involved with a
(02:41):
few people and started an organization calledYoung People in Print, otherwise known as y p I
and they're in The UK.
And I thought that was just amazing because ourindustry is filled with so many older people.
I'm not saying they're bad.
I'm just saying that they're older, and wegotta open up the doors and make some way for
(03:02):
some younger people, but our industry's alwayshad a problem attracting younger people.
Why?
Well, that's a whole other episode, but wewon't go there because we're moving forward.
But Paul, tell us a little bit about YPIP,young people in print, and how it got started
and why it got started, or why and how?
(03:23):
Why is because, as I said before, this is whatthe print industry looks like in The UK.
We are predominantly male, stale and pale, andthat's got to change, it's really got to
change.
This whole project came about from aconversation with a group of friends, pissed as
usual, and we woke up the following day andthought hang on a minute, is a good idea.
(03:46):
We've got print companies, and we know most ofthe print companies in The UK, all saying, some
of them saying we need young people, we needyoung people in here, how do we get them in
here?
At the other side you've got schools, collegesand the like saying we need to find jobs for
young people, how do we find them?
And the two weren't talking.
So all WIPET did was that, put them together.
We put together a website and we communicatewith careers hubs who liaise with schools to
(04:12):
find people who want to open their doors toallow young people to come in.
And when young people come in and see printcompanies or see what print is, actually that
difficulty about why they're not engaged isslightly overcome because they get excited
about it.
And our two my two fellow speakers are we'redue to go visit somewhere soon, we're gonna go
(04:34):
Lara's already been out to a print company, acouple of print companies, and they look at
them and wow, young people do not understandthat print is absolutely everywhere and they
also don't understand the breadth of jobs thatare available.
So WIPE IT, let's throw it out there and gettogether and tell people.
(04:54):
You know most of the people involved in WIPE ITby the way.
Warren, Elizabeth Bowerman, it was her idea.
Elizabeth came up there, she came up the ideas.
Said Wait, wait.
If it was Elizabeth's idea, then how come youdidn't tell me and why are you on and she's
not?
I'm just a question.
It's a question.
(05:15):
You know, that's what you do on podcasts.
You ask questions.
I have absolutely no idea.
Alright.
Well, we're gonna have to have another oneafter and have her on and tell her that we made
a mistake.
We made a mistake.
So there's Elizabeth, Kelvin Bell, who youknow, Lucy Swanston, who you know.
Do you know Sarah Kilcoyne?
I know you do.
Sarah Kilcoyne, Del Simmons and JoannaStevenson.
(05:38):
Most of those guys, people that you alreadyknow, it's the same girls, it's the kickoff
from the the Crown pub and people gettingtogether and coming up with daft ideas that's
created this.
And now we're pushing it, pushing it, pushingit.
I think it's amazing.
I think I think it was needed.
(06:00):
I'm actually having a a a podcast in a littlewhile with these Canadian scholarship group and
the US scholarship group for print to discuss,you know, also.
And I'm gonna talk about what you guys aredoing because you could probably lead the
charge.
Right?
So let me just bounce right now to Lara andGeorgina.
(06:20):
What were you doing before you worked for ASL?
Were you in school?
Were you working somewhere else?
I was a social media executive at a garage.
So that had a partnership with a restaurant.
I was sort of managing social media channelsand kind of like designing their kind of print
(06:44):
stuff.
So like the menus, the advertising for the puband kind of things like that.
And then I kind of fancied a change and thencame here as a customer success associate and
then worked my way up.
Okay.
So I have a question because what you said wasjust really interesting.
You came from you're a young person who camefrom the social media world doing that stuff,
(07:06):
and then you Yep.
Stepped into the old world, the new young oldworld, call it what you want, which is kind of
funny because I think a lot of people wanna gothe other way because social media looks like
it's so much fun.
In making the change first of why did you wannamake a change?
I sort of after obviously that COVID, I knoweveryone talks about like, I ended up working
(07:30):
through that.
The sort of social media was incredibly kind ofconvenient.
I guess obviously you can do that not kind ofin an office space.
I was in the office.
It was quite local.
And, yeah, I just kind of I just genuinelyfancied a change.
I wasn't enjoying it as much.
I kind of missed working as part of a teambecause I was sort of I was my department and I
(07:55):
kind of missed the social aspect as well.
So I came to ASL and obviously we've got ourteam like downstairs, like Laura and I's team
quite sort of close.
We work closely together and kind of there youget the social aspect and kind of the
development that you can't really get sort ofworking on your own sort of in a team of one,
(08:15):
there's just you kind of thing.
So I had colleagues, but there wasn't anythingthat I could kind of push and develop as much
as as I can in my current role.
Cool.
Know, I work alone.
I get it.
And I used to I
I always thought with working with people wasbetter because the ideas and everything flowed
differently.
But you went from social media to a brick andmortar company, basically.
(08:39):
Mhmm.
Right?
Yeah.
They sell equipment.
And how was how was that going from living thelife to moving boxes and speaking with angry
printers?
Well, in sort of the role I was in as well,there was a lot of kind of customer facing.
Sort of I helped out in other, like, parts ofthe company as well.
(08:59):
Obviously, I'm in customer success now in kindof like the a site call center contact center
environment.
So I'm dealing with a lot of queries fromcustomers.
Obviously, it was kind of more automotiverelated as a general rule, but I kind of really
enjoyed that as well.
So it kind of I was kind of taking that skillset and putting it into this and sort of with,
(09:21):
like, the elements from that, it was kind ofquite transferable sort of working with kind of
cars and the way I was there isn't hugelydifferent from kind of like the way we deal
with things like the service kind of side, themeters kind of side, I guess.
It's like the same thing in mileage on cars,which I know sounds really weird, but in my
head, it kind of just made sense.
(09:43):
Hey.
It's your head.
I'm not gonna question it.
Right?
If it makes sense to you, it makes sense to me.
Cool.
So then so, Lara, what's your story?
What were you doing before and how did you endup in a room with filing cabinets?
Yeah.
Good background.
So, like, going back to, like, school time, Itrained up and done like loads of different
(10:08):
levels of beauty therapy and then went andworked in a salon locally and done that for a
couple of years and then I could haveprogressed there and I could have gone self
employed at that point but I just completelyfell out of love with it and it just wasn't
what I wanted to do and I knew that if I leftit too long I wouldn't be as happy so I was
(10:28):
like just gonna make the choice and then left.
Didn't know what I wanted to do to be honest.
Just wanted to be like local, not have totravel as far that I was having to travel
because it wasn't it was kind of up the roadbut not really, however you class it around
here, you don't know.
But then I was looking for jobs in the localarea and then this one come up because it was
(10:52):
like a customer related job.
I started off in the team that Georgina's teamleader of and just thought this would be like a
perfect, like, fresh start, completelydifferent industry and just wanted something
new, really.
Cool.
I'm sure.
And how do you find it?
Yeah.
It's great, really.
Like, it's ten minutes from my house, so it's,like, really convenient for, like, my home life
(11:17):
as well.
I can get home really quick and everything'sjust nearby, which I quite like.
And then everyone that I work with is so nice.
And I've developed from Georgina's team intothe billing team to now developing into the
leader of billing team.
So I've had, like, three different job rolesbasically in nearly two years.
(11:37):
So I've been able to be progressed really wellso far.
Wow.
So so ASL.
So let me just touch on ASL.
So, Paul, you're at ASL.
You've been there for a good part of yourcareer.
Five years only.
Yeah.
Well, bought the business that we used to have.
Yeah.
Cool.
But so we're sitting with two of the employeesthat are young people.
(12:00):
Do they hire a lot of young people?
Both of these ladies are are on a recognizedand formalized apprenticeship scheme with a
regional college.
They'll both come out of it with qualificationsthat will allow them to stay where they are or
move elsewhere.
ASL is a very, very young person friendlyorganisation in the head office.
(12:26):
I joked earlier on about the pale male andstale aspect of me.
The reality is if I walk into the departmentwhere these two ladies sit, the balance is very
much female and not stale.
Yeah, so it's working really well.
(12:49):
The company believes in encouraging youngpeople and these are two of quite a few
apprentices.
Are you familiar with the printing CharitiesRising Stars?
I am not, but I will look them up after.
Tell us about it.
The printing charity have got more money thanChina, and they keep it all in the bank.
So they're encouraging people, young people toto step up and tell tell the world about their
(13:13):
their life in print, and if they needadditional training, the printing charity will
give funding to some people.
And it's a very difficult process, there's alot of people entered for it this year, but
it's a way of encouraging young people to jointhe print industry.
We have three people, three of the young peopleat ASL currently entered for the Rising Stars,
(13:40):
so fingers crossed for all of them, I won'tname them, that would be unfair, But it's just
another reflection of how this companyencourages young people to become themselves
and excel a bit, and that's pretty important inmy view.
No, I think it's huge.
I think, listen, I think the industry, I saidit before, it's an older industry.
(14:04):
I'm a little worried as things get a littletougher out there and people have to hang on to
their jobs a little longer, right?
Because that means there's gonna be a littleless room for the young people to come in.
I think it's super important that we encourageand get as many young people as we can, just
because the printing industry is one of largestindustries in the world, regardless of what
(14:24):
anybody says, And we need to keep producing.
I also think So actually, before you guys gotinto the world of print, and you're not at a
print company, but you're at reseller, were youDid you have any thoughts on the printing
industry?
Did you even know that the printing industryexisted?
To be honest, the most kind of No.
No.
(14:44):
I want you to lie to me.
Why?
No.
No.
Tell me the truth.
I'm just kidding.
The most I kind of had to deal with it was wehad a printer in the office and obviously I'd
use that to print menus and things and it wouldbreak.
And I'd bring our service provider and go help.
And then they'd help me because I'd broken itagain.
That was basically it kind of like, Oh, you
(15:04):
Oh, you mean like a desktop, Like an HP printeris the printer you're talking?
Like, it was the like one of the was it ComicaMinolta something?
Crush that.
You allowed
to say that name?
Sorry.
Does ASL sell Comica Minolta?
Yes.
Okay, then you're allowed to say that name.
Okay, good.
Know, we just, we wanna watch what goes on hereand that we promote the right people that, you
(15:26):
know, work within the company, not thecompetition.
So that was it.
You just saw a printer on the floor and thatwas your, all you knew about print?
Well, that was kind of
the extent kind of like working wise of the, Istudied A level, I studied product design,
photography and media.
So the kind of like knowledge of print wasthere and like the kind of like medias you use,
(15:51):
I guess, obviously using it for like projectsand that kind of thing.
But with regard to kind of the actual kind ofinner workings of like, a print company,
obviously, it wasn't something that wasrelevant to me at the time.
Have both of you guys, girls, sorry, gotta becareful, send to printing companies, actual
manufacturing facilities?
(16:13):
We've been to CIB customers.
Sorry.
Lara, you too?
Bem?
We've been to printing companies.
Yeah.
I've been to a couple customers, but not, like,any, like, warehouse y type things or, like,
where loads of equipment is.
It's just, like, actual customers that I build,for example.
(16:35):
Cool.
So what do you do you guys think about printingand when you're in a printing shop?
Are we frozen?
A printing shop?
Well, a print company.
I'll I'll give you a different view.
It's it's unfair for these two because they'vebeen to a couple and we're due to go to another
(16:57):
large one in a couple of weeks time.
But I took some other members of the team to anorganization last year where there was a litho
press and one of the they were looking at thislitho press, old litho press, the guy that runs
the business was quite happy to take him up onthe platforms and show them where the ink goes
(17:17):
and one of them said is that a paint printer?
Because she'd seen the buckets of ink, so itlooked like it was printing paint, which causes
a whole lot of merriment at the time and shewas never allowed to live it down and never
will be, But the reality is when you see thosethings, suddenly you realize actually how big
the thing is.
(17:37):
And one of them said to me, what's a machinelike that cost?
I said, don't ask me, ask the guy that owns it,ask him, ask him.
And she asked him, how much is that?
He said, well I'm going to probably replacethat in twelve months time and I think the new
one will be about $3.03 and a half millionpounds, at which point her eyes went what?
To print paint, and it's not until people seethat stuff that they start to understand just
(18:00):
how big a job this really is.
Yeah, know for sure.
And these two are in for a real eye opening ina couple of weeks time.
They will see an organization where there isdata, the management of data, the usage of data
in direct mail and promotion for major brands.
You know I remember when I first went intoprint and I went into a print shop I was just
(18:25):
amazed because everything we see outside in thereal world is already done, manufactured,
colored up, and whatnot.
And then you go to the shop and you just watcha a a white piece of paper go through either a
digital press or a litho?
Did you say litho?
Because I think it's called litho.
But, you know
It might be on your side of the pond, but westill speak English here.
(18:46):
Whatever you do in the colonies is entirely upto you.
But the king's English, he says litho.
Okay.
You really?
Okay.
We're not gonna get into the King conversationright now, but or the Queen.
No.
Anyway, so, you know, you watch the white sheetgo in, and then it comes out, and it's all
colorful and all, like, you know, done up.
And I remember bringing customers in after me,and they were, like, kind of blown away because
(19:09):
most people have no idea about finishedproducts.
And then when I you know, when you get into itand then you're part of the making of it, it's
kinda, like, pretty cool to see it, you know,go from beginning to end, and then you're in
the store, and you see it somewhere in thestore.
Right?
Do you guys like print?
Yes.
Everywhere.
(19:30):
So
I like that.
It's everywhere.
It's everywhere.
What do you like most about print?
Kind of the it's kind of more the format.
It's like if you're reading a book, obviously,it's printed, and you can get a lot of, like,
joy from reading a book, I guess.
So it's kind of the it's less the actual printand more kind of the, story that you get from
(19:54):
it, if that makes sense.
No, yeah, no.
Well print is emotional, right?
So when you say you're reading the book,whatever you get out of reading and whatever
the story is, you know, the ups, the downs, thehighs, the lows, the excitement.
And then there's also looking at a beautifulprint that just makes you smile or a litho of a
painting perhaps.
(20:14):
I don't know.
I just think print is what I like about printmore than anything is that the whole world
needs us.
Hence, the world can't live without us.
Have you thought about if there was no print,if there was no instructions on your
medication, if there was no instructions on howto cook the food that you buy or do anything,
(20:36):
or, oh my god, IKEA.
There was no instructions.
How would anybody put anything together fromIKEA?
Well, well, that's Even with the instructions.
You know?
Yeah.
They don't help, Even with
the instructions, have parts left over.
So, you know, but that's because I'm a guy.
Right?
Where do you what else do you see yourselfdoing in print as you grow?
(21:00):
Or let me ask you a better question.
Have you seen anything in print that has piquedyour interest in a different way that you'd
like to learn more about?
There was I was at a friend's house recentlyand there was a group of us and a couple of
people I didn't know.
And I ended up having a conversation about he'slike, a technician, I guess, but he was talking
(21:21):
about how they were printing on cheese and inmy head I'm just really, really intrigued.
I really wanna see the machine that does that.
I would it just baffled me.
And we weren't like, everyone's having a normalconversation or, like, a bit more kind of
standard about their weeks.
I'm like, how are they printing on cheese andhow did you fix it?
And it was just the oddest kind of tangent thatwe went down, to be honest.
(21:41):
Print But that math intrigues me,
to be honest.
Printing on cheese or printing with cheese?
Well, it was kind of both, but I didn't reallyget to the bottom of it because we ended up
playing a bit like articulate, so we gotdistracted by You
can within the realms of three d print, you canprint with chocolate, so if you want something
(22:04):
printing that you can then eat, it can be done.
I think we had an open day event a few yearsago where we were printing names and
personalization onto biscuits in a customer'senvironment.
Anything you want is possible and it's onlylimited by the imagination that comes to make
it, you know.
It's just a crazy, crazy world that we live in.
(22:25):
That's a beautiful so, Larry, I have aquestion.
So you're billing, working with customers andpayment.
How is that?
How are customers when you call them up forpayment?
So I don't take the actual money.
I bill them.
So I get the satisfaction of, like, getting alltheir prints together, converting the prints
(22:47):
into the money by their CPC rates, and thenpushing out big bills and then just seeing that
part of the money.
So I don't get the satisfaction of it actuallycoming seeing it come in, but I get to produce
a bill and saying, you owe us this much.
So, yeah, I quite enjoy that, really.
So I guess they got an older person dealingwith the collections.
(23:10):
Well He's old and old.
Yeah.
Some are slightly no one's old.
Like, yeah, there's a couple people that arelike mine and Georgina's age, and then there's
some people like your kids.
Come on.
Say it.
What?
I know where you're going.
(23:31):
Some older people.
Yeah.
So
how many people in the company?
Totally nationwide, I think there's about twohundred hundred and eighty to 200 something
like that.
And what percentage of the two eighty are, 40?
There
was a stat came out about this just beforeChristmas, wasn't there?
(23:53):
There was a stat about puppy in the company, amale, and it's 71 or 2%.
But I don't know about the ages.
I can't remember that one.
So 72 percent male.
That about sounds right.
Actually, it sounds a little lower than theaverage, so you guys are doing good.
It has been down recently, actually, by acouple of percent.
(24:15):
Yeah.
In the last three years, it's dropped quitewell.
There's more ladies in the in the organizationthan there are men.
Paul, quick question.
Young people in print, how many members arethere?
That's not an easy answer, because we've got agroup page, we've got a company page.
The company page is about three thirty, thegroup page is just 500 and more, but that's
(24:39):
just a LinkedIn group page and it actually hasno reflection on what's really going on.
Last year we had 77 companies ready to opentheir doors on International Day of Print and
invite young people in and look around.
IDOP this year is the October 9 and we'relooking to do the same, so there will be print
companies all around The UK keen to open uptheir doors, and this is just to invite young
(25:04):
people in to come and see what print is about.
There's lot more to it than that.
I've got I think about four and a half thousandcompanies in The UK that we roll with
information and keep going, and the numbersjust keep growing every day to more people who
are interested in forming an open day or doingan environment, an work experience opportunity
(25:29):
for young people.
However, there is something else that a lot ofthese companies are finding out about AFTER.
So we hadn't been telling them before, but inThe UK if you run a tender for, if you take a
tender for some government work or a tender forwork, there's a big rush right now to get your
ESG story, your environmental and social storycorrect.
(25:53):
A lot of the schools that we deal with seeyoung people in print as a massive tick box in
their social inclusion department.
So what are you doing to what are you doing tohelp the world?
Hello?
We're opening doors for young people to findjobs.
You're doing what?
And there's nobody else doing it.
(26:13):
I'm loving it.
So with the, how do you fund YPIP?
The funding comes from the pockets of thepeople that set it up.
We are not taking any money.
We are not charging any money.
We are not making any money.
Everything we do is voluntary.
(26:36):
Well, I'm gonna suggest if there's people thatare listening that they donate money to the
YPIP if you're not gonna ask for it.
It's getting expensive in certain respects.
No.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All all kidding aside, and the reason I wasasking that question is I'm always amazed when
organizations start or there's organizationsout there to help people, and a lot of
(27:00):
companies don't participate or don't doanything or don't give anything.
I just I wanna call them all out.
Like if you're in the world of print, you needto support some local organizations.
If you were to charge 250 or £500 or quids orUS dollars or anything but pesos, you know,
(27:21):
it's it's not a lot of money for a companybecause we make bigger mistakes when we cut
paper sometimes the wrong way.
Right?
But you said that there was 4,000 companies.
4,000 companies at $500 is a lot of money tohelp events and fund and assist people in
working.
Like there's so many more things I see that youcould do with this organization if you had some
(27:46):
funds.
And I would agree with you.
Today, as I say, we've spent our own moneydoing it.
We have incurred a few expenses, but that'slife.
The issue is when we set this up, we set it upas a not for profit idea on the basis that if
we're not seen to be making money, if we're notseen to be taking anything out, then it is
(28:11):
generally a philanthropic exercise where nobodycan say to us, you're making money out of that,
I'm not going to support you.
We just want people to say the idea is theright idea.
Let's get more Georgina's.
We need lots of them.
We need more Georgina's.
We need more Laras urgently because you and me,mate, we ain't living much longer.
(28:45):
And the other people
that I could go and I get that, but I'mthinking like this.
Know, if there's 4,000 companies and we can getNow I'm saying we as if I'm part of this
because I really like the idea, But you know,if you could, whatever dollars you could
generate from these companies, you are anonprofit, the money would go to promoting
(29:06):
young people.
The money could even be set up to help someyoung people who need financial assistance to
get moving.
It might even be, sorry, I'm thinking some ofthese companies might get back some of the
money that they put in over time by havingyoung people come in and work a stash or see if
they like it, or there's a hundred differentthings, right?
(29:31):
But, you know, if everyone's willing to gospend $500 a week at the buying drinks for
people and friends, I'd rather we take thatmoney and put it into the young people in the
industry.
I'd like to see money spent on training so thatGeorgina and Lara can get those extra courses
that they need for.
I'd like to see somebody sponsor that.
(29:52):
There's the other aspect of location which Laramentioned, it's handy at ASL, it's close to her
home.
But if it wasn't, you know, the costs of busingpeople or moving people, young people, from
where they live to a place of employment,that's a real benefit to young people because
it stops them getting to work, and if therewere funds out there to pay the costs.
(30:15):
Listen, what we've learned this time Warren,what we've learned from setting this up in The
UK, if it ever gets replicated abroad and wehave had conversations with people in Belgium
and in France, if it got sent abroad we mayapproach it slightly differently and suggest
that it's not run as a not, cost as a cost freeexercise, that there is some funding put into
(30:37):
it to support those specific needs of the youngpeople.
The importance is that the money is spent onyoung people, not spent on me getting a new
hairdo or a new pair of glasses.
That's the important bit.
I'm certainly not gonna be doing my hair if Iget some money.
But
It would be a short bill.
No.
So what about when you say other con like, whyis why can't YPIP be in Canada, in The US, part
(31:03):
of the Canadian Scholarship Trust, or theGraphic Arts Foundation?
Because you haven't got the seven people thatset it up in The UK sitting there.
And if those people exist, if you and I gettogether with Jamie McLennan and have a
conversation with him about it, you mightthink, hang on a minute, there's something to
be done here.
Chuck Joanne Gore in the mix, and you've got alot of voice.
(31:24):
And it's the voice that is the issue.
It is purely the voice.
Well, not purely the voice.
There's there's the get off your ass, get offthe sofa, and do something about it rather than
just talk about it.
There's got to be a bit of that too, butthere's no reason why it can't go everywhere.
Well, I'll I'll help you and put my name behindwhatever it is that you wanna do because I
think it's great.
(31:45):
Ladies, dear friend when you act when yourfriends talk about what they do for a living,
and you say, I work at ASL, a company thatsells printing equipment, What do they say?
I don't really know.
Like, I got a training job here at one point.
(32:06):
He he become interested in selling.
Yeah, no, it's like more like what do you dothen in it as such.
It's like the knowledge of not knowing, somepeople don't know like before I started I
didn't know what the printing industry was Sothen it's like when people say, oh, what do you
actually do?
(32:27):
Like, what is that?
And then they become a bit interested in what Ido and such.
I think as well with like ASL specificallypeople are like, oh, what do you print then?
And like, we don't thing that we see are like,yeah, like the business that we're in, we're
not actually doing the printing.
We're supplying the printers, which I don'tknow why it takes people a little bit to get
(32:52):
their head around sometimes.
Like, well, don't people just go and get them?
Like, no.
It's not just a little, like, desktop box onthe side.
No.
Like, these these things
are massive.
Like, they're big big customers.
I'm trying to explain that.
And I was having a conversation with my parentswhen I first got the job and I was explaining
and they were like, but you know, because ifyou don't know about it and if you're not in
(33:16):
the industry, it seems really odd.
I think people think you just buy a printer orit just appears in the corner of the room and
it prints.
And obviously, after being here a couple ofyears, it's it's not that simple kind of thing.
It's a lot more in-depth than that, actually.
Oh, I remember I remember bringing alwayswanting to bring customers into the factory
because everybody thinks they give it to you ona day and they get it back two days later, and
(33:40):
it doesn't matter if it's a single sheet or ifit's die cut, folded, embellished, what, die
cut, anything.
And then you would bring customers in and youwould walk them from when the file comes in in
the estimating room down to the prepress, intothe plate room, into the press, to the
finishing.
And then at the end, their mouth was likehanging on the ground going, oh my God, I
didn't know.
And then I would turn around and I go, yeah,well, now you know, so give me a few extra
(34:03):
days.
Right?
Yeah.
And then it just changes.
And you need and I I always thought it wasimportant to bring customers into the place to
show them what's involved.
Listen.
I on YouTube, I watch how they make thatbecause I'm always interested in how they make
everything and how we get it because it justshows up on our desk.
But I think the the more of that.
(34:23):
So did you have any friends who've asked tocome in and see what you do?
Like, any interest from anybody?
Like, I'm just curious if young people talkabout print ever amongst themselves and go,
hey.
You should see this brochure we just did.
You should see them in sheet.
That's half the problem.
Young people have got better things in theirlives to talk about print.
(34:44):
This is the issue.
I think that's mildly unfair because I think wedon't talk about it in the way that kind of
you'll talk about it in the way of like theprinters and things, but we'll see, we'll be
looking at like home decor and we'll go, oh,that's a really cool print that we put on our
wall.
And then the people that actually like are inthe business and in like that environment will
(35:05):
then have a conversation about it.
We think we are having conversations about it,just not in the same way.
And it's a lot more subtle than, oh, look, thiswas printed on this printer.
And I know that it's more, oh, that's cool.
I wonder how that was done.
And then we have our own thought process aboutit.
Cool.
Listen.
I mean, you guys don't I mean, a lot of youngpeople don't even realize the print, but
(35:26):
everything that they do that's personalized.
You know, if they go buy Nike shoes online, ifthey go buy, T shirts, if they something comes
with their name on it.
Like, everything is printed.
Like, legitimately, I get into fights withpeople when they say to me, print's dead.
And then I go off on a tyrant, like, what doyou mean it's dead?
Look around.
You wake up in the morning, there's books onyour table, everything in the bathroom you're
(35:48):
gonna use.
If you're female, all your cosmetics come inreally nicely embellished printed boxes, all
that makeup.
And then you go in the kitchen, and you haven'teven left the house, and you've been inundated
with print.
So print is really anything but dead.
You have to start screaming at people when theysay print's dead.
Right?
I've interviewed a few people for the YPIPblog, and one of them, a young guy called
(36:10):
Hayden Cooper.
If anybody looks at the YPIP website, go to thelog page find Hayden Cooper.
He left school at 16, he works for a company inHarlow, and he now says that when he goes out
at the weekend with his mates, he not seeprint.
So while his mates are looking around the shopsat things to buy, he's looking at the displays
(36:31):
and thinking how's that done, how's this done,he's completely obsessed with it.
And he's a young man, he's 17, 18, not quite18, but he can't not see print any longer.
It's you just gotta be sure, Nick.
All of two are gonna these two are gonna tellme off after this.
They're gonna be like, what's
the matter with you?
Nobody if you think print, all the all thetrading cards, the Pokemon cards, everything
(36:53):
all these little kids are playing with, they'reall touching the embellishment.
They're all touching all of the all of theprint and all the good stuff.
Right?
You have to keep you have to keep doing that.
Do you have that do you have do you have youngpeople day at the office where you bring in all
young people
to the around?
Young.
They have old people day.
(37:14):
Me and Georgina aren't even the youngest.
No.
Not the youngest?
Are we allowed to ask?
Are we allowed to ask your ages, Laura?
How old are you?
How young
Can you guess?
How old
do you think the way, I would never ask thatquestion because I know how inappropriate it
is.
You're you're I wouldn't ask your weight, and Iwouldn't ask your age.
K.
I want you to guess how old you think I am.
(37:36):
No.
I'm not doing that.
That's this is like this is going online.
I'm not doing that.
Not yet.
Are you mad?
You know,
I'm probably also kinda wouldn't know.
I'm gonna go with twenty one.
Bang on.
I usually get twenty five, so you're bang on.
Yeah.
Oh, I always take four years off whatever I'mthinking just to cover me.
Brilliant.
(37:57):
Listen, being a little older, I've been throughthe ringer, so I'm not looking to get end up
again and again and again, right?
So what do you love about what you do, each oneof you?
Georgina.
I like the kind of problem solving.
So when we have customers that have encounteredan issue, I know Laura mentioned about the
(38:18):
complaints kind of sometimes kind of preemptinga problem to kind of stop it before it kind of
becomes that sort of, I know we're doing a lotof development in my team for like remote
resolution.
So we've been running what we call the firstline initiative and kind of like building up
the team's knowledge.
(38:38):
And I really like, like kind of problem solvingand putting new processes in place to just make
things a bit quicker.
Like efficiency is always key.
So trying to make sure that we're not wastingtime.
We're trying to make sure everything is asstreamlined as possible for our customers as
well.
I think that's probably what I enjoy the mostbecause at the end of that, have a happy
(39:00):
customer, which is obviously the goal.
But, yeah, I think the kind of problem solvingkind of element and, like, just the processes I
really, really enjoy.
Cool.
Lara, what do you like most?
For me, like, when we've taken on othercompanies, like, inherited their business and
(39:23):
that sort of thing, it's more like wherethey've gone wrong in the past with, like
obviously, I deal with the billing.
So where they've gone wrong with, like,overbilling them or readings have got mixed up
or something and then picking apart where itwent wrong to then make the customer feel happy
and satisfied now we're sort of in control oftheir account and everything.
(39:45):
So it's like just like Georgina said, likeproblem solving, like us day to day.
I problem solve all hours of the day.
So, yeah, it's that side of thing really.
But then I just love doing a manual invoice.
Sounds really boring, but for some reason,like, just making it look neat with capital
(40:05):
letters in the right places and putting theprice on it, it's just I don't know.
It just satisfies me for some reason.
Hey.
I like that.
You know?
I like who doesn't like billing?
Right?
It's it's actually the most important it's oneof the most important things that go on, the
billing and then the collecting.
Have a private question.
(40:26):
Go ahead, Paul.
People do forget.
People do Regularly.
So being young in the industry dealing withcustomers, are people kind to you, respectful?
Do you find them rude?
It I think it's And
and by the way, I'm not asking you to name anynames of the people.
(40:49):
Right?
I'm just trying to just to get a feel what yourtake is on on how, you know, an old industry is
interacting.
Of, like, rude customers.
So, like, I get rude customers because I'mcharging them for something they probably don't
wanna pay for.
But then Georgina gets the rude customersbecause she's trying to help them fix something
and some people just don't wanna be helped.
(41:11):
The the thing I kind of find with, like, myteam's side of it is the way, obviously, the
the system works is by the time we notified ofsomething, it's kind of already a problem.
So like we get the call to log a ticket for aservice call because the printer's not
printing, which is generally what it's doing.
(41:32):
It'll be jamming or every kind of thing thatcould go wrong with it.
We probably had a call about.
And by that point, the customer's alreadyannoyed because they've already probably had a
Google, they've done those things.
And by that point, they're already frustrated.
So they've kind of pre wound themselves upsometimes.
So we're on the phone trying to help them.
(41:53):
And although it's not like, it's obviously notour fault, we didn't go and put paper in the
team that's jammed it, but we're also the kindof first contact to kind of take that out on,
which I'm not saying happens all the timebecause we do genuinely have some really,
really lovely customers that we have really,really good relationships with.
Oh, you're allowed to name the good ones if youwant.
(42:16):
We do.
And honestly, some of those customers have beenthe ones that have had a problem and they're
like, no, I need to print and I need to printnow.
And I'm like, no, I understand.
We are trying to get that, but I need tounderstand what the problem is in order to fix
that.
And sometimes the issue is just like gettingthe problem, like just from the start really is
(42:36):
trying to kind of get that out of them so wecan get from A to B.
Yeah, I think that's kind
of the issue that we encounter is, yeah, justby the time they contact us, they're already
annoyed.
There's not loads we can kinda do about that.
You almost wanna tell them to like take abreath, right?
So if you're a print owner working in a printshop and you're listening and you're calling
(43:02):
for service, ASL in particular, right,especially if it's Georgina or Lara, be nice.
Can I make an observation?
No, but you know what?
I've learned this at the airport, right?
It doesn't matter what the situation is.
When you are nice, you get back a betterresponse and things tend to go a little better.
(43:25):
So even at the airport, I mean, I was on aflight that was canceled, and everyone runs to
the ticket booth, and I get there first becauseI'm faster, and I pushed everybody down.
And I just say to the person right away, go, bythe way, I'm gonna give you a great experience.
I will not be like the rest of the peoplebehind me.
And right away, the guy just started laughing,and I offered him my, you know, my my
(43:47):
sympathies for what he would have to deal withafter me.
And he managed to move me and get me on aflight because screaming at those folks doesn't
get you anything, right, or any faster.
So same thing when they call in, a printershould call in for service.
I think most companies are there to servicethem in the best quickest way possible they
can.
I guess why the printer's so uptight is usuallyit's his operator that's caused the problem.
(44:10):
No.
Can I make an observation, Warren?
Sure.
Sure.
Sure.
Really relevant to this is and relevant to thewhole wide pip story.
We are you and I are slightly older gentlemen.
You keep saying that, stop it.
But we are, and we're grumpy and cantankerous.
When I listen to the way the teams downstairstalk to customers and talk to each other, they
(44:35):
communicate with each other far better and farfriendlier than people of my generation.
It's a simple fact of life and that's why weneed more younger people in the industry
because they are kinder to each other than Iwould ever be.
And it's not just me, it's grumpy old men.
We're not as good at communicating as youngpeople are, and they're very impressive, really
(44:58):
impressive.
Oh, I I would agree.
I would agree.
No.
I just there's no reason everybody shouldn'tjust be nice.
Listen.
What what did we learn through COVID?
Everything gets done.
Nothing's that important in life.
We all live.
We all survive.
Right?
I just
think Those two weren't at school then.
(45:20):
They don't know what you're talking about.
I missed my GCSEs.
I didn't have to take my A level.
It was really weird.
Hey, we've all We have to learn from eachother.
Right?
I'll tell you, one of the things that I'velearned from younger people is there's no
(45:40):
reason to work, you know, five or six or sevendays a week to get something done.
You need to enjoy life a little.
And whoever in the old people came up with theterm of, I paid my dues, I don't know where
that came from, but, you know, I never liked itand now I don't hear it anymore.
So it's kind of pretty good.
(46:00):
So what would Okay, so we're gonna wrap up in amoment or two, but to the ladies, what would
you say to young people out there about printon either side?
Don't jump up the past.
Yeah.
I think sort of what Laura said, like, lookinto it, but also just, like, if you're
(46:21):
thinking about it, just, like, look around andkinda see what is printed.
And then if you think that's cool, we'll lookinto it because there's probably a job there
somewhere.
Like, whatever it is, even if you're looking ifyou have a conversation about printing on
cheese, like, look into it.
Like, there's there's definitely gonna besomething there somewhere.
And the best thing you can do is reach out andjust ask the question because that's probably
(46:44):
one of the most, like, flattering things youcan do as well is just ask the question and go,
how do you do this?
Because I think it's quite cool.
And that that reaching out could be, like, thestart of, like, your career just by just by
doing that simple thing.
Cool.
Lara, any thoughts?
Prince?
Yeah.
(47:04):
No.
What I said before, Georgina, just looking intoit and just like with me, I wanted a completely
new career.
So, like, looking into different options withinprint because you don't have to just sell a
print.
You don't just have to, like you can be thecustomer service side of a printing business.
Like, you don't have to just sell it and such.
(47:25):
So there is loads of different jobs, whetherit's installing the printer or billing.
Lots of different options to look at.
Cool.
So I think it's important for everybody outthere to know, you know, I mean, Paul's made it
clear that it's an old industry with a lot ofold people, but the industry today is not the
(47:47):
same as it was that I think a lot of peoplethink about where you're using old equipment,
big equipment, you're cranking things, you'reputting ink in everywhere, and you're coming
home with ink under your nails like a mechanic.
Today, the print industry has advancedtechnologically so far that the big litho
(48:08):
presses is that it?
Litho?
Yeah.
The big litho presses are like giant videogames.
Everything's a push button preset tech checkedinto the prepress.
You got big monitors at the front of the presswatching every sheet go through in cameras.
Digital presses are preset.
Folders are preset.
You're not getting the same paper cuts, andyou're not going home dirty.
(48:28):
So I just think it's important that we have topromote that out to the world.
Right?
Because not everybody want I never got dirty inprint.
I never wanted to if we had someone else do thedirty stuff.
But it's so important because the software thatwe're using, right, state of the art AI.
How about AI?
I just wanna touch on AI for a minute.
(48:49):
You guys touch on AI at work at all?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, good answer.
Yeah.
Next.
So
we're developing something called AIVA, whichis an ASL virtual assistant and she's on our
website and she can sort of, we promote it alot in service center is seeing like helping
(49:15):
customers rather find their tracking.
If they're looking for an order, if they'retrying to log a ticket, things like that.
They can reach out via AIBA as well and be incontact with the service center that way rather
than kind of picking up the phone as well.
I've found it, I think the team's found itreally, really useful because kind of dealing
with stuff sort of via email and things likethat, can, like, wise, you can kind of get a
(49:38):
lot more done because the information's alreadythere.
Obviously, it's lovely to speak to customers aswell, but if they're in a rush, they might not
wanna ring up and kind of go through that So Ithink we find quite a few people are making use
of that.
Yeah.
I I actually started using that on otherpeople's websites when I'm looking for
something, and I realized rather than runaround and try to navigate through the site,
(50:00):
just ask the assistant there who will give youthe answer, and then you know where you're
going, right, as opposed to just waiting.
I think AI is pretty great, and I think we'dall just have to embrace it because there's so
many things you could do with it.
But we'll leave AI for another anotherconversation.
So I just had a a thought, like, you know, whenI think of the older people, you know, we would
(50:22):
take magazines when we go into the bathroom andwe read.
Do young people take magazines or books in thebathroom, or is it just electronics?
Just phone or iPad.
Well,
alright.
I guess, the way you're saying it, you haven'texperienced dropping it yet.
But once you drop it, you're gonna go back toprint.
Right?
It's a lot easier and cheaper.
(50:43):
In the bathroom, print is cheaper thanelectronics.
So that's pretty good.
Anyway, this is my thought.
Anyways, we'll wrap it up.
First of all, ladies, thank you so much forcoming on.
I know you didn't know what you were walkinginto.
I hope it was good.
You're more than welcome to come back onanother time.
(51:04):
And you know what I'm gonna actually suggest?
When you're speaking to customers, billingcustomers, or customers with equipment, ask
them if they have young people in the shop.
Speak to the young people and ask them if theywould come on the podcast with you because next
time I would like to have just under 30, andI'll be the only old guy.
(51:24):
Paul could listen quietly on the side.
But no, I would really love to talk to morepeople that are younger, and I'd love to talk
to people that are working together as well andget a good perspective of what it is and then
we could use it to continue to promote.
Paul, I'm good to help out with young people inprint, whatever it is that you need.
(51:47):
People listening out around there, I think youshould call up and if they don't ask you for
money, maybe donate a few hundred pounds.
Give them a head start.
I promise you it'll come back and benefit you.
Ladies, would you have any final words youwanna say?
Great, love it.
No, I'm just kidding.
(52:08):
I'm just kidding.
I always do that.
You wanna say, words of encouragement to youngpeople listening?
I think as much as Paul obviously said, it iskind of like a very like male based kind of old
environment.
I think Laura and I kind of kind of perspectiveof it is a bit different because sort of coming
into the office, there's like the team I knowthat we work with, we're quite young, kind of a
(52:32):
head office, whether we're upstairs or in thedownstairs office, like it is quite a young
environment.
We're all very like active and trying to helpeach other.
We're quite proactive just trying to our jobdone.
And I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
So I think as much as, yeah, like I say, Paul'ssaying it's quite old, I think sort of it
(52:55):
depends upon who kind of walks into the office.
That obviously not in a rude way, but obviouslyit's quite dependent because I know our team
specifically is quite young and I think, like,that doesn't make us any less good at what
we're doing.
Like, we're very on it, like, trying to getstuff done.
So
Hey.
(53:15):
Even the old people had to start somewhereonce, and they made mistakes even if they don't
admit it.
The
enthusiasm that we get from the young people inASL is quite humbling really.
They're a cool bunch.
They're a cool bunch, it's good.
No, well, so I'll tell you this, the, you know,old industry, and I keep saying it, but when I
(53:35):
had my company, honest to God, the best peopleworking were the women because your attention
to detail is far superior than to most men.
Right?
So I think we need more women in the industryif we wanna be more efficient and be more
profitable.
I'm sure it'll cost us in the end something,but I think it is I think it is a good thing.
(53:59):
I I like some of the change I've seen going onin the industry.
Paul, any final words from you?
Very simple.
If you're a print company and you want toemploy young people, find our website.
It's really easy.
YPIP.co.uk.
Send us a message and we'll put you in touchwith the people that need to that are looking
(54:20):
for jobs.
Likewise, if you're a young person looking fora job, exactly the same in reverse.
And let's just open the lines of communicationbecause that's all it needs to be.
And I would say to those companies who have anaged workforce who are frightened of taking on
young people, grow up.
They're good people.
Get them in there and give them something to doand encourage them and make them feel like
(54:42):
valued members, not just somebody that's thereto make a cup of tea.
Everybody has to start somewhere.
Right?
Yeah, absolutely.
You don't come out a genius
not very I did, but that's the difference.
Right, cool.
First of all, thank you all for coming on.
Great conversation.
We're gonna continue the conversation.
Everybody listening, if you made it this far,as I always say, good for you.
(55:08):
Go spread this episode, tell somebody to listento it.
Tell young people, tell old people.
We gotta get more people listening to the youngpeople and encourage them.
If anybody knows anyone who wants to be on thepodcast, you've got something relevant to say,
something really good to say, then let me know.
I wanna help you say it.
(55:29):
Again, everybody, thank you so much for helpingme promote print all sorts.
And folks, we'll have you back on again for afollow-up in six months to a year.
By the way, quick question.
Has anybody been offered a job by any of yourcustomers?
I tell you what, I've taken lots of, I've seenschools and careers people have taken them to
(55:54):
print companies, to Konica and others showroom,and to a few of the manufacturer showrooms, and
to print companies, and I've had lots of peoplewho are not in print saying to me, how do I get
a job doing this?
Never mind the young people, the grown ups, howdo I get a job doing this?
And I think one or two people have had joboffers too.
Okay.
Cool.
Okay.
(56:14):
On that note, we're gonna say goodbye toeverybody.
Thank you for listening.
Tune in.
Everybody, thanks for coming on.
Thanks for your time, Warren, as always.
Pleasure.
Cheers.
Hey, welcome back to another edition Printing'sAlive.
And today we have a wild episode.
Now it's not that wild.
We have a really good episode today.
Today, we've got a couple's guests special.
All my guests are special.
You hear me say that every week.
We've got Paul Steed.
We've got Lara Vigor, and we've got GeorginaHebert.
Did I get all the names right, first of all?
(00:32):
No.
I didn't, I never do.
It's also because they're probably in purple onthe screen and I'm trying to read them.
So why don't you all introduce yourself for aminute and tell us a little bit about what you
do?
Okay, Paul, you go first.
It's Paul Stead rhymes with bread or dead,which is a funny thing.
(00:53):
Sometimes when I answer the phone, I say Paul'sdead.
Paul's dead.
I hear people say I didn't know he was ill.
Rude, just plain rude.
But I work in the commercial print sector atASL supplying printers, digital printers,
offset printers, inkjet printers to the world.
But I'm also a founding member of anorganization called Young People in Print which
(01:14):
is what we're here to talk about.
So we'll forget about printers and focus onyoung people in print when you're good and
ready.
I'm old, I'm past it, I need to be replaced,the whole object of white is to get rid of this
from the print industry and replace it withthese two, and these two work at ASL.
So Georgina over to you.
(01:35):
So I'm Georgina Hebbard.
I'm the customer success team leader at ASL.
So sort of manage the contact center, incomingqueries, that kind of thing, make sure
customers have their toner, make sure servicerequests are logged, whether that's myself
doing that or the team and sort of progressingmyself and the team sort of through that.
(01:58):
Cool.
Lara?
I'm Lara Weigard.
I'm the billing senior and I build all thecustomer meters, do all the invoicing, queries,
credits if needed and then also do lots ofcomplaints as well.
So you manage the money and the grief?
(02:19):
Pretty much.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
Well, we're gonna have some good questionsabout that after in some of your customers.
But let's get started with Paul.
I always thought it was steed or is it stead?
Stead.
Stead.
Stead.
Okay.
I thought
it was the other one.
Anyways, doesn't matter.
You're here.
So the reason we're here today, folks,everybody listening is Paul was involved with a
(02:41):
few people and started an organization calledYoung People in Print, otherwise known as y p I
and they're in The UK.
And I thought that was just amazing because ourindustry is filled with so many older people.
I'm not saying they're bad.
I'm just saying that they're older, and wegotta open up the doors and make some way for
(03:02):
some younger people, but our industry's alwayshad a problem attracting younger people.
Why?
Well, that's a whole other episode, but wewon't go there because we're moving forward.
But Paul, tell us a little bit about YPIP,young people in print, and how it got started
and why it got started, or why and how?
(03:23):
Why is because, as I said before, this is whatthe print industry looks like in The UK.
We are predominantly male, stale and pale, andthat's got to change, it's really got to
change.
This whole project came about from aconversation with a group of friends, pissed as
usual, and we woke up the following day andthought hang on a minute, is a good idea.
(03:46):
We've got print companies, and we know most ofthe print companies in The UK, all saying, some
of them saying we need young people, we needyoung people in here, how do we get them in
here?
At the other side you've got schools, collegesand the like saying we need to find jobs for
young people, how do we find them?
And the two weren't talking.
So all WIPET did was that, put them together.
We put together a website and we communicatewith careers hubs who liaise with schools to
(04:12):
find people who want to open their doors toallow young people to come in.
And when young people come in and see printcompanies or see what print is, actually that
difficulty about why they're not engaged isslightly overcome because they get excited
about it.
And our two my two fellow speakers are we'redue to go visit somewhere soon, we're gonna go
(04:34):
Lara's already been out to a print company, acouple of print companies, and they look at
them and wow, young people do not understandthat print is absolutely everywhere and they
also don't understand the breadth of jobs thatare available.
So WIPE IT, let's throw it out there and gettogether and tell people.
(04:54):
You know most of the people involved in WIPE ITby the way.
Warren, Elizabeth Bowerman, it was her idea.
Elizabeth came up there, she came up the ideas.
Said Wait, wait.
If it was Elizabeth's idea, then how come youdidn't tell me and why are you on and she's
not?
I'm just a question.
It's a question.
(05:15):
You know, that's what you do on podcasts.
You ask questions.
I have absolutely no idea.
Alright.
Well, we're gonna have to have another oneafter and have her on and tell her that we made
a mistake.
We made a mistake.
So there's Elizabeth, Kelvin Bell, who youknow, Lucy Swanston, who you know.
Do you know Sarah Kilcoyne?
I know you do.
Sarah Kilcoyne, Del Simmons and JoannaStevenson.
(05:38):
Most of those guys, people that you alreadyknow, it's the same girls, it's the kickoff
from the the Crown pub and people gettingtogether and coming up with daft ideas that's
created this.
And now we're pushing it, pushing it, pushingit.
I think it's amazing.
I think I think it was needed.
(06:00):
I'm actually having a a a podcast in a littlewhile with these Canadian scholarship group and
the US scholarship group for print to discuss,you know, also.
And I'm gonna talk about what you guys aredoing because you could probably lead the
charge.
Right?
So let me just bounce right now to Lara andGeorgina.
(06:20):
What were you doing before you worked for ASL?
Were you in school?
Were you working somewhere else?
I was a social media executive at a garage.
So that had a partnership with a restaurant.
I was sort of managing social media channelsand kind of like designing their kind of print
(06:44):
stuff.
So like the menus, the advertising for the puband kind of things like that.
And then I kind of fancied a change and thencame here as a customer success associate and
then worked my way up.
Okay.
So I have a question because what you said wasjust really interesting.
You came from you're a young person who camefrom the social media world doing that stuff,
(07:06):
and then you Yep.
Stepped into the old world, the new young oldworld, call it what you want, which is kind of
funny because I think a lot of people wanna gothe other way because social media looks like
it's so much fun.
In making the change first of why did you wannamake a change?
I sort of after obviously that COVID, I knoweveryone talks about like, I ended up working
(07:30):
through that.
The sort of social media was incredibly kind ofconvenient.
I guess obviously you can do that not kind ofin an office space.
I was in the office.
It was quite local.
And, yeah, I just kind of I just genuinelyfancied a change.
I wasn't enjoying it as much.
I kind of missed working as part of a teambecause I was sort of I was my department and I
(07:55):
kind of missed the social aspect as well.
So I came to ASL and obviously we've got ourteam like downstairs, like Laura and I's team
quite sort of close.
We work closely together and kind of there youget the social aspect and kind of the
development that you can't really get sort ofworking on your own sort of in a team of one,
(08:15):
there's just you kind of thing.
So I had colleagues, but there wasn't anythingthat I could kind of push and develop as much
as as I can in my current role.
Cool.
Know, I work alone.
I get it.
And I used to I
I always thought with working with people wasbetter because the ideas and everything flowed
differently.
But you went from social media to a brick andmortar company, basically.
(08:39):
Mhmm.
Right?
Yeah.
They sell equipment.
And how was how was that going from living thelife to moving boxes and speaking with angry
printers?
Well, in sort of the role I was in as well,there was a lot of kind of customer facing.
Sort of I helped out in other, like, parts ofthe company as well.
(08:59):
Obviously, I'm in customer success now in kindof like the a site call center contact center
environment.
So I'm dealing with a lot of queries fromcustomers.
Obviously, it was kind of more automotiverelated as a general rule, but I kind of really
enjoyed that as well.
So it kind of I was kind of taking that skillset and putting it into this and sort of with,
(09:21):
like, the elements from that, it was kind ofquite transferable sort of working with kind of
cars and the way I was there isn't hugelydifferent from kind of like the way we deal
with things like the service kind of side, themeters kind of side, I guess.
It's like the same thing in mileage on cars,which I know sounds really weird, but in my
head, it kind of just made sense.
(09:43):
Hey.
It's your head.
I'm not gonna question it.
Right?
If it makes sense to you, it makes sense to me.
Cool.
So then so, Lara, what's your story?
What were you doing before and how did you endup in a room with filing cabinets?
Yeah.
Good background.
So, like, going back to, like, school time, Itrained up and done like loads of different
(10:08):
levels of beauty therapy and then went andworked in a salon locally and done that for a
couple of years and then I could haveprogressed there and I could have gone self
employed at that point but I just completelyfell out of love with it and it just wasn't
what I wanted to do and I knew that if I leftit too long I wouldn't be as happy so I was
(10:28):
like just gonna make the choice and then left.
Didn't know what I wanted to do to be honest.
Just wanted to be like local, not have totravel as far that I was having to travel
because it wasn't it was kind of up the roadbut not really, however you class it around
here, you don't know.
But then I was looking for jobs in the localarea and then this one come up because it was
(10:52):
like a customer related job.
I started off in the team that Georgina's teamleader of and just thought this would be like a
perfect, like, fresh start, completelydifferent industry and just wanted something
new, really.
Cool.
I'm sure.
And how do you find it?
Yeah.
It's great, really.
Like, it's ten minutes from my house, so it's,like, really convenient for, like, my home life
(11:17):
as well.
I can get home really quick and everything'sjust nearby, which I quite like.
And then everyone that I work with is so nice.
And I've developed from Georgina's team intothe billing team to now developing into the
leader of billing team.
So I've had, like, three different job rolesbasically in nearly two years.
(11:37):
So I've been able to be progressed really wellso far.
Wow.
So so ASL.
So let me just touch on ASL.
So, Paul, you're at ASL.
You've been there for a good part of yourcareer.
Five years only.
Yeah.
Well, bought the business that we used to have.
Yeah.
Cool.
But so we're sitting with two of the employeesthat are young people.
(12:00):
Do they hire a lot of young people?
Both of these ladies are are on a recognizedand formalized apprenticeship scheme with a
regional college.
They'll both come out of it with qualificationsthat will allow them to stay where they are or
move elsewhere.
ASL is a very, very young person friendlyorganisation in the head office.
(12:26):
I joked earlier on about the pale male andstale aspect of me.
The reality is if I walk into the departmentwhere these two ladies sit, the balance is very
much female and not stale.
Yeah, so it's working really well.
(12:49):
The company believes in encouraging youngpeople and these are two of quite a few
apprentices.
Are you familiar with the printing CharitiesRising Stars?
I am not, but I will look them up after.
Tell us about it.
The printing charity have got more money thanChina, and they keep it all in the bank.
So they're encouraging people, young people toto step up and tell tell the world about their
(13:13):
their life in print, and if they needadditional training, the printing charity will
give funding to some people.
And it's a very difficult process, there's alot of people entered for it this year, but
it's a way of encouraging young people to jointhe print industry.
We have three people, three of the young peopleat ASL currently entered for the Rising Stars,
(13:40):
so fingers crossed for all of them, I won'tname them, that would be unfair, But it's just
another reflection of how this companyencourages young people to become themselves
and excel a bit, and that's pretty important inmy view.
No, I think it's huge.
I think, listen, I think the industry, I saidit before, it's an older industry.
(14:04):
I'm a little worried as things get a littletougher out there and people have to hang on to
their jobs a little longer, right?
Because that means there's gonna be a littleless room for the young people to come in.
I think it's super important that we encourageand get as many young people as we can, just
because the printing industry is one of largestindustries in the world, regardless of what
(14:24):
anybody says, And we need to keep producing.
I also think So actually, before you guys gotinto the world of print, and you're not at a
print company, but you're at reseller, were youDid you have any thoughts on the printing
industry?
Did you even know that the printing industryexisted?
To be honest, the most kind of No.
No.
(14:44):
I want you to lie to me.
Why?
No.
No.
Tell me the truth.
I'm just kidding.
The most I kind of had to deal with it was wehad a printer in the office and obviously I'd
use that to print menus and things and it wouldbreak.
And I'd bring our service provider and go help.
And then they'd help me because I'd broken itagain.
That was basically it kind of like, Oh, you
(15:04):
Oh, you mean like a desktop, Like an HP printeris the printer you're talking?
Like, it was the like one of the was it ComicaMinolta something?
Crush that.
You allowed
to say that name?
Sorry.
Does ASL sell Comica Minolta?
Yes.
Okay, then you're allowed to say that name.
Okay, good.
Know, we just, we wanna watch what goes on hereand that we promote the right people that, you
(15:26):
know, work within the company, not thecompetition.
So that was it.
You just saw a printer on the floor and thatwas your, all you knew about print?
Well, that was kind of
the extent kind of like working wise of the, Istudied A level, I studied product design,
photography and media.
So the kind of like knowledge of print wasthere and like the kind of like medias you use,
(15:51):
I guess, obviously using it for like projectsand that kind of thing.
But with regard to kind of the actual kind ofinner workings of like, a print company,
obviously, it wasn't something that wasrelevant to me at the time.
Have both of you guys, girls, sorry, gotta becareful, send to printing companies, actual
manufacturing facilities?
(16:13):
We've been to CIB customers.
Sorry.
Lara, you too?
Bem?
We've been to printing companies.
Yeah.
I've been to a couple customers, but not, like,any, like, warehouse y type things or, like,
where loads of equipment is.
It's just, like, actual customers that I build,for example.
(16:35):
Cool.
So what do you do you guys think about printingand when you're in a printing shop?
Are we frozen?
A printing shop?
Well, a print company.
I'll I'll give you a different view.
It's it's unfair for these two because they'vebeen to a couple and we're due to go to another
(16:57):
large one in a couple of weeks time.
But I took some other members of the team to anorganization last year where there was a litho
press and one of the they were looking at thislitho press, old litho press, the guy that runs
the business was quite happy to take him up onthe platforms and show them where the ink goes
(17:17):
and one of them said is that a paint printer?
Because she'd seen the buckets of ink, so itlooked like it was printing paint, which causes
a whole lot of merriment at the time and shewas never allowed to live it down and never
will be, But the reality is when you see thosethings, suddenly you realize actually how big
the thing is.
(17:37):
And one of them said to me, what's a machinelike that cost?
I said, don't ask me, ask the guy that owns it,ask him, ask him.
And she asked him, how much is that?
He said, well I'm going to probably replacethat in twelve months time and I think the new
one will be about $3.03 and a half millionpounds, at which point her eyes went what?
To print paint, and it's not until people seethat stuff that they start to understand just
(18:00):
how big a job this really is.
Yeah, know for sure.
And these two are in for a real eye opening ina couple of weeks time.
They will see an organization where there isdata, the management of data, the usage of data
in direct mail and promotion for major brands.
You know I remember when I first went intoprint and I went into a print shop I was just
(18:25):
amazed because everything we see outside in thereal world is already done, manufactured,
colored up, and whatnot.
And then you go to the shop and you just watcha a a white piece of paper go through either a
digital press or a litho?
Did you say litho?
Because I think it's called litho.
But, you know
It might be on your side of the pond, but westill speak English here.
(18:46):
Whatever you do in the colonies is entirely upto you.
But the king's English, he says litho.
Okay.
You really?
Okay.
We're not gonna get into the King conversationright now, but or the Queen.
No.
Anyway, so, you know, you watch the white sheetgo in, and then it comes out, and it's all
colorful and all, like, you know, done up.
And I remember bringing customers in after me,and they were, like, kind of blown away because
(19:09):
most people have no idea about finishedproducts.
And then when I you know, when you get into itand then you're part of the making of it, it's
kinda, like, pretty cool to see it, you know,go from beginning to end, and then you're in
the store, and you see it somewhere in thestore.
Right?
Do you guys like print?
Yes.
Everywhere.
(19:30):
So
I like that.
It's everywhere.
It's everywhere.
What do you like most about print?
Kind of the it's kind of more the format.
It's like if you're reading a book, obviously,it's printed, and you can get a lot of, like,
joy from reading a book, I guess.
So it's kind of the it's less the actual printand more kind of the, story that you get from
(19:54):
it, if that makes sense.
No, yeah, no.
Well print is emotional, right?
So when you say you're reading the book,whatever you get out of reading and whatever
the story is, you know, the ups, the downs, thehighs, the lows, the excitement.
And then there's also looking at a beautifulprint that just makes you smile or a litho of a
painting perhaps.
(20:14):
I don't know.
I just think print is what I like about printmore than anything is that the whole world
needs us.
Hence, the world can't live without us.
Have you thought about if there was no print,if there was no instructions on your
medication, if there was no instructions on howto cook the food that you buy or do anything,
(20:36):
or, oh my god, IKEA.
There was no instructions.
How would anybody put anything together fromIKEA?
Well, well, that's Even with the instructions.
You know?
Yeah.
They don't help, Even with
the instructions, have parts left over.
So, you know, but that's because I'm a guy.
Right?
Where do you what else do you see yourselfdoing in print as you grow?
(21:00):
Or let me ask you a better question.
Have you seen anything in print that has piquedyour interest in a different way that you'd
like to learn more about?
There was I was at a friend's house recentlyand there was a group of us and a couple of
people I didn't know.
And I ended up having a conversation about he'slike, a technician, I guess, but he was talking
(21:21):
about how they were printing on cheese and inmy head I'm just really, really intrigued.
I really wanna see the machine that does that.
I would it just baffled me.
And we weren't like, everyone's having a normalconversation or, like, a bit more kind of
standard about their weeks.
I'm like, how are they printing on cheese andhow did you fix it?
And it was just the oddest kind of tangent thatwe went down, to be honest.
(21:41):
Print But that math intrigues me,
to be honest.
Printing on cheese or printing with cheese?
Well, it was kind of both, but I didn't reallyget to the bottom of it because we ended up
playing a bit like articulate, so we gotdistracted by You
can within the realms of three d print, you canprint with chocolate, so if you want something
(22:04):
printing that you can then eat, it can be done.
I think we had an open day event a few yearsago where we were printing names and
personalization onto biscuits in a customer'senvironment.
Anything you want is possible and it's onlylimited by the imagination that comes to make
it, you know.
It's just a crazy, crazy world that we live in.
(22:25):
That's a beautiful so, Larry, I have aquestion.
So you're billing, working with customers andpayment.
How is that?
How are customers when you call them up forpayment?
So I don't take the actual money.
I bill them.
So I get the satisfaction of, like, getting alltheir prints together, converting the prints
(22:47):
into the money by their CPC rates, and thenpushing out big bills and then just seeing that
part of the money.
So I don't get the satisfaction of it actuallycoming seeing it come in, but I get to produce
a bill and saying, you owe us this much.
So, yeah, I quite enjoy that, really.
So I guess they got an older person dealingwith the collections.
(23:10):
Well He's old and old.
Yeah.
Some are slightly no one's old.
Like, yeah, there's a couple people that arelike mine and Georgina's age, and then there's
some people like your kids.
Come on.
Say it.
What?
I know where you're going.
(23:31):
Some older people.
Yeah.
So
how many people in the company?
Totally nationwide, I think there's about twohundred hundred and eighty to 200 something
like that.
And what percentage of the two eighty are, 40?
There
was a stat came out about this just beforeChristmas, wasn't there?
(23:53):
There was a stat about puppy in the company, amale, and it's 71 or 2%.
But I don't know about the ages.
I can't remember that one.
So 72 percent male.
That about sounds right.
Actually, it sounds a little lower than theaverage, so you guys are doing good.
It has been down recently, actually, by acouple of percent.
(24:15):
Yeah.
In the last three years, it's dropped quitewell.
There's more ladies in the in the organizationthan there are men.
Paul, quick question.
Young people in print, how many members arethere?
That's not an easy answer, because we've got agroup page, we've got a company page.
The company page is about three thirty, thegroup page is just 500 and more, but that's
(24:39):
just a LinkedIn group page and it actually hasno reflection on what's really going on.
Last year we had 77 companies ready to opentheir doors on International Day of Print and
invite young people in and look around.
IDOP this year is the October 9 and we'relooking to do the same, so there will be print
companies all around The UK keen to open uptheir doors, and this is just to invite young
(25:04):
people in to come and see what print is about.
There's lot more to it than that.
I've got I think about four and a half thousandcompanies in The UK that we roll with
information and keep going, and the numbersjust keep growing every day to more people who
are interested in forming an open day or doingan environment, an work experience opportunity
(25:29):
for young people.
However, there is something else that a lot ofthese companies are finding out about AFTER.
So we hadn't been telling them before, but inThe UK if you run a tender for, if you take a
tender for some government work or a tender forwork, there's a big rush right now to get your
ESG story, your environmental and social storycorrect.
(25:53):
A lot of the schools that we deal with seeyoung people in print as a massive tick box in
their social inclusion department.
So what are you doing to what are you doing tohelp the world?
Hello?
We're opening doors for young people to findjobs.
You're doing what?
And there's nobody else doing it.
(26:13):
I'm loving it.
So with the, how do you fund YPIP?
The funding comes from the pockets of thepeople that set it up.
We are not taking any money.
We are not charging any money.
We are not making any money.
Everything we do is voluntary.
(26:36):
Well, I'm gonna suggest if there's people thatare listening that they donate money to the
YPIP if you're not gonna ask for it.
It's getting expensive in certain respects.
No.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All all kidding aside, and the reason I wasasking that question is I'm always amazed when
organizations start or there's organizationsout there to help people, and a lot of
(27:00):
companies don't participate or don't doanything or don't give anything.
I just I wanna call them all out.
Like if you're in the world of print, you needto support some local organizations.
If you were to charge 250 or £500 or quids orUS dollars or anything but pesos, you know,
(27:21):
it's it's not a lot of money for a companybecause we make bigger mistakes when we cut
paper sometimes the wrong way.
Right?
But you said that there was 4,000 companies.
4,000 companies at $500 is a lot of money tohelp events and fund and assist people in
working.
Like there's so many more things I see that youcould do with this organization if you had some
(27:46):
funds.
And I would agree with you.
Today, as I say, we've spent our own moneydoing it.
We have incurred a few expenses, but that'slife.
The issue is when we set this up, we set it upas a not for profit idea on the basis that if
we're not seen to be making money, if we're notseen to be taking anything out, then it is
(28:11):
generally a philanthropic exercise where nobodycan say to us, you're making money out of that,
I'm not going to support you.
We just want people to say the idea is theright idea.
Let's get more Georgina's.
We need lots of them.
We need more Georgina's.
We need more Laras urgently because you and me,mate, we ain't living much longer.
(28:45):
And the other people
that I could go and I get that, but I'mthinking like this.
Know, if there's 4,000 companies and we can getNow I'm saying we as if I'm part of this
because I really like the idea, But you know,if you could, whatever dollars you could
generate from these companies, you are anonprofit, the money would go to promoting
(29:06):
young people.
The money could even be set up to help someyoung people who need financial assistance to
get moving.
It might even be, sorry, I'm thinking some ofthese companies might get back some of the
money that they put in over time by havingyoung people come in and work a stash or see if
they like it, or there's a hundred differentthings, right?
(29:31):
But, you know, if everyone's willing to gospend $500 a week at the buying drinks for
people and friends, I'd rather we take thatmoney and put it into the young people in the
industry.
I'd like to see money spent on training so thatGeorgina and Lara can get those extra courses
that they need for.
I'd like to see somebody sponsor that.
(29:52):
There's the other aspect of location which Laramentioned, it's handy at ASL, it's close to her
home.
But if it wasn't, you know, the costs of busingpeople or moving people, young people, from
where they live to a place of employment,that's a real benefit to young people because
it stops them getting to work, and if therewere funds out there to pay the costs.
(30:15):
Listen, what we've learned this time Warren,what we've learned from setting this up in The
UK, if it ever gets replicated abroad and wehave had conversations with people in Belgium
and in France, if it got sent abroad we mayapproach it slightly differently and suggest
that it's not run as a not, cost as a cost freeexercise, that there is some funding put into
(30:37):
it to support those specific needs of the youngpeople.
The importance is that the money is spent onyoung people, not spent on me getting a new
hairdo or a new pair of glasses.
That's the important bit.
I'm certainly not gonna be doing my hair if Iget some money.
But
It would be a short bill.
No.
So what about when you say other con like, whyis why can't YPIP be in Canada, in The US, part
(31:03):
of the Canadian Scholarship Trust, or theGraphic Arts Foundation?
Because you haven't got the seven people thatset it up in The UK sitting there.
And if those people exist, if you and I gettogether with Jamie McLennan and have a
conversation with him about it, you mightthink, hang on a minute, there's something to
be done here.
Chuck Joanne Gore in the mix, and you've got alot of voice.
(31:24):
And it's the voice that is the issue.
It is purely the voice.
Well, not purely the voice.
There's there's the get off your ass, get offthe sofa, and do something about it rather than
just talk about it.
There's got to be a bit of that too, butthere's no reason why it can't go everywhere.
Well, I'll I'll help you and put my name behindwhatever it is that you wanna do because I
think it's great.
(31:45):
Ladies, dear friend when you act when yourfriends talk about what they do for a living,
and you say, I work at ASL, a company thatsells printing equipment, What do they say?
I don't really know.
Like, I got a training job here at one point.
(32:06):
He he become interested in selling.
Yeah, no, it's like more like what do you dothen in it as such.
It's like the knowledge of not knowing, somepeople don't know like before I started I
didn't know what the printing industry was Sothen it's like when people say, oh, what do you
actually do?
(32:27):
Like, what is that?
And then they become a bit interested in what Ido and such.
I think as well with like ASL specificallypeople are like, oh, what do you print then?
And like, we don't thing that we see are like,yeah, like the business that we're in, we're
not actually doing the printing.
We're supplying the printers, which I don'tknow why it takes people a little bit to get
(32:52):
their head around sometimes.
Like, well, don't people just go and get them?
Like, no.
It's not just a little, like, desktop box onthe side.
No.
Like, these these things
are massive.
Like, they're big big customers.
I'm trying to explain that.
And I was having a conversation with my parentswhen I first got the job and I was explaining
and they were like, but you know, because ifyou don't know about it and if you're not in
(33:16):
the industry, it seems really odd.
I think people think you just buy a printer orit just appears in the corner of the room and
it prints.
And obviously, after being here a couple ofyears, it's it's not that simple kind of thing.
It's a lot more in-depth than that, actually.
Oh, I remember I remember bringing alwayswanting to bring customers into the factory
because everybody thinks they give it to you ona day and they get it back two days later, and
(33:40):
it doesn't matter if it's a single sheet or ifit's die cut, folded, embellished, what, die
cut, anything.
And then you would bring customers in and youwould walk them from when the file comes in in
the estimating room down to the prepress, intothe plate room, into the press, to the
finishing.
And then at the end, their mouth was likehanging on the ground going, oh my God, I
didn't know.
And then I would turn around and I go, yeah,well, now you know, so give me a few extra
(34:03):
days.
Right?
Yeah.
And then it just changes.
And you need and I I always thought it wasimportant to bring customers into the place to
show them what's involved.
Listen.
I on YouTube, I watch how they make thatbecause I'm always interested in how they make
everything and how we get it because it justshows up on our desk.
But I think the the more of that.
(34:23):
So did you have any friends who've asked tocome in and see what you do?
Like, any interest from anybody?
Like, I'm just curious if young people talkabout print ever amongst themselves and go,
hey.
You should see this brochure we just did.
You should see them in sheet.
That's half the problem.
Young people have got better things in theirlives to talk about print.
(34:44):
This is the issue.
I think that's mildly unfair because I think wedon't talk about it in the way that kind of
you'll talk about it in the way of like theprinters and things, but we'll see, we'll be
looking at like home decor and we'll go, oh,that's a really cool print that we put on our
wall.
And then the people that actually like are inthe business and in like that environment will
(35:05):
then have a conversation about it.
We think we are having conversations about it,just not in the same way.
And it's a lot more subtle than, oh, look, thiswas printed on this printer.
And I know that it's more, oh, that's cool.
I wonder how that was done.
And then we have our own thought process aboutit.
Cool.
Listen.
I mean, you guys don't I mean, a lot of youngpeople don't even realize the print, but
(35:26):
everything that they do that's personalized.
You know, if they go buy Nike shoes online, ifthey go buy, T shirts, if they something comes
with their name on it.
Like, everything is printed.
Like, legitimately, I get into fights withpeople when they say to me, print's dead.
And then I go off on a tyrant, like, what doyou mean it's dead?
Look around.
You wake up in the morning, there's books onyour table, everything in the bathroom you're
(35:48):
gonna use.
If you're female, all your cosmetics come inreally nicely embellished printed boxes, all
that makeup.
And then you go in the kitchen, and you haven'teven left the house, and you've been inundated
with print.
So print is really anything but dead.
You have to start screaming at people when theysay print's dead.
Right?
I've interviewed a few people for the YPIPblog, and one of them, a young guy called
(36:10):
Hayden Cooper.
If anybody looks at the YPIP website, go to thelog page find Hayden Cooper.
He left school at 16, he works for a company inHarlow, and he now says that when he goes out
at the weekend with his mates, he not seeprint.
So while his mates are looking around the shopsat things to buy, he's looking at the displays
(36:31):
and thinking how's that done, how's this done,he's completely obsessed with it.
And he's a young man, he's 17, 18, not quite18, but he can't not see print any longer.
It's you just gotta be sure, Nick.
All of two are gonna these two are gonna tellme off after this.
They're gonna be like, what's
the matter with you?
Nobody if you think print, all the all thetrading cards, the Pokemon cards, everything
(36:53):
all these little kids are playing with, they'reall touching the embellishment.
They're all touching all of the all of theprint and all the good stuff.
Right?
You have to keep you have to keep doing that.
Do you have that do you have do you have youngpeople day at the office where you bring in all
young people
to the around?
Young.
They have old people day.
(37:14):
Me and Georgina aren't even the youngest.
No.
Not the youngest?
Are we allowed to ask?
Are we allowed to ask your ages, Laura?
How old are you?
How young
Can you guess?
How old
do you think the way, I would never ask thatquestion because I know how inappropriate it
is.
You're you're I wouldn't ask your weight, and Iwouldn't ask your age.
K.
I want you to guess how old you think I am.
(37:36):
No.
I'm not doing that.
That's this is like this is going online.
I'm not doing that.
Not yet.
Are you mad?
You know,
I'm probably also kinda wouldn't know.
I'm gonna go with twenty one.
Bang on.
I usually get twenty five, so you're bang on.
Yeah.
Oh, I always take four years off whatever I'mthinking just to cover me.
Brilliant.
(37:57):
Listen, being a little older, I've been throughthe ringer, so I'm not looking to get end up
again and again and again, right?
So what do you love about what you do, each oneof you?
Georgina.
I like the kind of problem solving.
So when we have customers that have encounteredan issue, I know Laura mentioned about the
(38:18):
complaints kind of sometimes kind of preemptinga problem to kind of stop it before it kind of
becomes that sort of, I know we're doing a lotof development in my team for like remote
resolution.
So we've been running what we call the firstline initiative and kind of like building up
the team's knowledge.
(38:38):
And I really like, like kind of problem solvingand putting new processes in place to just make
things a bit quicker.
Like efficiency is always key.
So trying to make sure that we're not wastingtime.
We're trying to make sure everything is asstreamlined as possible for our customers as
well.
I think that's probably what I enjoy the mostbecause at the end of that, have a happy
(39:00):
customer, which is obviously the goal.
But, yeah, I think the kind of problem solvingkind of element and, like, just the processes I
really, really enjoy.
Cool.
Lara, what do you like most?
For me, like, when we've taken on othercompanies, like, inherited their business and
(39:23):
that sort of thing, it's more like wherethey've gone wrong in the past with, like
obviously, I deal with the billing.
So where they've gone wrong with, like,overbilling them or readings have got mixed up
or something and then picking apart where itwent wrong to then make the customer feel happy
and satisfied now we're sort of in control oftheir account and everything.
(39:45):
So it's like just like Georgina said, likeproblem solving, like us day to day.
I problem solve all hours of the day.
So, yeah, it's that side of thing really.
But then I just love doing a manual invoice.
Sounds really boring, but for some reason,like, just making it look neat with capital
(40:05):
letters in the right places and putting theprice on it, it's just I don't know.
It just satisfies me for some reason.
Hey.
I like that.
You know?
I like who doesn't like billing?
Right?
It's it's actually the most important it's oneof the most important things that go on, the
billing and then the collecting.
Have a private question.
(40:26):
Go ahead, Paul.
People do forget.
People do Regularly.
So being young in the industry dealing withcustomers, are people kind to you, respectful?
Do you find them rude?
It I think it's And
and by the way, I'm not asking you to name anynames of the people.
(40:49):
Right?
I'm just trying to just to get a feel what yourtake is on on how, you know, an old industry is
interacting.
Of, like, rude customers.
So, like, I get rude customers because I'mcharging them for something they probably don't
wanna pay for.
But then Georgina gets the rude customersbecause she's trying to help them fix something
and some people just don't wanna be helped.
(41:11):
The the thing I kind of find with, like, myteam's side of it is the way, obviously, the
the system works is by the time we notified ofsomething, it's kind of already a problem.
So like we get the call to log a ticket for aservice call because the printer's not
printing, which is generally what it's doing.
(41:32):
It'll be jamming or every kind of thing thatcould go wrong with it.
We probably had a call about.
And by that point, the customer's alreadyannoyed because they've already probably had a
Google, they've done those things.
And by that point, they're already frustrated.
So they've kind of pre wound themselves upsometimes.
So we're on the phone trying to help them.
(41:53):
And although it's not like, it's obviously notour fault, we didn't go and put paper in the
team that's jammed it, but we're also the kindof first contact to kind of take that out on,
which I'm not saying happens all the timebecause we do genuinely have some really,
really lovely customers that we have really,really good relationships with.
Oh, you're allowed to name the good ones if youwant.
(42:16):
We do.
And honestly, some of those customers have beenthe ones that have had a problem and they're
like, no, I need to print and I need to printnow.
And I'm like, no, I understand.
We are trying to get that, but I need tounderstand what the problem is in order to fix
that.
And sometimes the issue is just like gettingthe problem, like just from the start really is
(42:36):
trying to kind of get that out of them so wecan get from A to B.
Yeah, I think that's kind
of the issue that we encounter is, yeah, justby the time they contact us, they're already
annoyed.
There's not loads we can kinda do about that.
You almost wanna tell them to like take abreath, right?
So if you're a print owner working in a printshop and you're listening and you're calling
(43:02):
for service, ASL in particular, right,especially if it's Georgina or Lara, be nice.
Can I make an observation?
No, but you know what?
I've learned this at the airport, right?
It doesn't matter what the situation is.
When you are nice, you get back a betterresponse and things tend to go a little better.
(43:25):
So even at the airport, I mean, I was on aflight that was canceled, and everyone runs to
the ticket booth, and I get there first becauseI'm faster, and I pushed everybody down.
And I just say to the person right away, go, bythe way, I'm gonna give you a great experience.
I will not be like the rest of the peoplebehind me.
And right away, the guy just started laughing,and I offered him my, you know, my my
(43:47):
sympathies for what he would have to deal withafter me.
And he managed to move me and get me on aflight because screaming at those folks doesn't
get you anything, right, or any faster.
So same thing when they call in, a printershould call in for service.
I think most companies are there to servicethem in the best quickest way possible they
can.
I guess why the printer's so uptight is usuallyit's his operator that's caused the problem.
(44:10):
No.
Can I make an observation, Warren?
Sure.
Sure.
Sure.
Really relevant to this is and relevant to thewhole wide pip story.
We are you and I are slightly older gentlemen.
You keep saying that, stop it.
But we are, and we're grumpy and cantankerous.
When I listen to the way the teams downstairstalk to customers and talk to each other, they
(44:35):
communicate with each other far better and farfriendlier than people of my generation.
It's a simple fact of life and that's why weneed more younger people in the industry
because they are kinder to each other than Iwould ever be.
And it's not just me, it's grumpy old men.
We're not as good at communicating as youngpeople are, and they're very impressive, really
(44:58):
impressive.
Oh, I I would agree.
I would agree.
No.
I just there's no reason everybody shouldn'tjust be nice.
Listen.
What what did we learn through COVID?
Everything gets done.
Nothing's that important in life.
We all live.
We all survive.
Right?
I just
think Those two weren't at school then.
(45:20):
They don't know what you're talking about.
I missed my GCSEs.
I didn't have to take my A level.
It was really weird.
Hey, we've all We have to learn from eachother.
Right?
I'll tell you, one of the things that I'velearned from younger people is there's no
(45:40):
reason to work, you know, five or six or sevendays a week to get something done.
You need to enjoy life a little.
And whoever in the old people came up with theterm of, I paid my dues, I don't know where
that came from, but, you know, I never liked itand now I don't hear it anymore.
So it's kind of pretty good.
(46:00):
So what would Okay, so we're gonna wrap up in amoment or two, but to the ladies, what would
you say to young people out there about printon either side?
Don't jump up the past.
Yeah.
I think sort of what Laura said, like, lookinto it, but also just, like, if you're
(46:21):
thinking about it, just, like, look around andkinda see what is printed.
And then if you think that's cool, we'll lookinto it because there's probably a job there
somewhere.
Like, whatever it is, even if you're looking ifyou have a conversation about printing on
cheese, like, look into it.
Like, there's there's definitely gonna besomething there somewhere.
And the best thing you can do is reach out andjust ask the question because that's probably
(46:44):
one of the most, like, flattering things youcan do as well is just ask the question and go,
how do you do this?
Because I think it's quite cool.
And that that reaching out could be, like, thestart of, like, your career just by just by
doing that simple thing.
Cool.
Lara, any thoughts?
Prince?
Yeah.
(47:04):
No.
What I said before, Georgina, just looking intoit and just like with me, I wanted a completely
new career.
So, like, looking into different options withinprint because you don't have to just sell a
print.
You don't just have to, like you can be thecustomer service side of a printing business.
Like, you don't have to just sell it and such.
(47:25):
So there is loads of different jobs, whetherit's installing the printer or billing.
Lots of different options to look at.
Cool.
So I think it's important for everybody outthere to know, you know, I mean, Paul's made it
clear that it's an old industry with a lot ofold people, but the industry today is not the
(47:47):
same as it was that I think a lot of peoplethink about where you're using old equipment,
big equipment, you're cranking things, you'reputting ink in everywhere, and you're coming
home with ink under your nails like a mechanic.
Today, the print industry has advancedtechnologically so far that the big litho
(48:08):
presses is that it?
Litho?
Yeah.
The big litho presses are like giant videogames.
Everything's a push button preset tech checkedinto the prepress.
You got big monitors at the front of the presswatching every sheet go through in cameras.
Digital presses are preset.
Folders are preset.
You're not getting the same paper cuts, andyou're not going home dirty.
(48:28):
So I just think it's important that we have topromote that out to the world.
Right?
Because not everybody want I never got dirty inprint.
I never wanted to if we had someone else do thedirty stuff.
But it's so important because the software thatwe're using, right, state of the art AI.
How about AI?
I just wanna touch on AI for a minute.
(48:49):
You guys touch on AI at work at all?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, good answer.
Yeah.
Next.
So
we're developing something called AIVA, whichis an ASL virtual assistant and she's on our
website and she can sort of, we promote it alot in service center is seeing like helping
(49:15):
customers rather find their tracking.
If they're looking for an order, if they'retrying to log a ticket, things like that.
They can reach out via AIBA as well and be incontact with the service center that way rather
than kind of picking up the phone as well.
I've found it, I think the team's found itreally, really useful because kind of dealing
with stuff sort of via email and things likethat, can, like, wise, you can kind of get a
(49:38):
lot more done because the information's alreadythere.
Obviously, it's lovely to speak to customers aswell, but if they're in a rush, they might not
wanna ring up and kind of go through that So Ithink we find quite a few people are making use
of that.
Yeah.
I I actually started using that on otherpeople's websites when I'm looking for
something, and I realized rather than runaround and try to navigate through the site,
(50:00):
just ask the assistant there who will give youthe answer, and then you know where you're
going, right, as opposed to just waiting.
I think AI is pretty great, and I think we'dall just have to embrace it because there's so
many things you could do with it.
But we'll leave AI for another anotherconversation.
So I just had a a thought, like, you know, whenI think of the older people, you know, we would
(50:22):
take magazines when we go into the bathroom andwe read.
Do young people take magazines or books in thebathroom, or is it just electronics?
Just phone or iPad.
Well,
alright.
I guess, the way you're saying it, you haven'texperienced dropping it yet.
But once you drop it, you're gonna go back toprint.
Right?
It's a lot easier and cheaper.
(50:43):
In the bathroom, print is cheaper thanelectronics.
So that's pretty good.
Anyway, this is my thought.
Anyways, we'll wrap it up.
First of all, ladies, thank you so much forcoming on.
I know you didn't know what you were walkinginto.
I hope it was good.
You're more than welcome to come back onanother time.
(51:04):
And you know what I'm gonna actually suggest?
When you're speaking to customers, billingcustomers, or customers with equipment, ask
them if they have young people in the shop.
Speak to the young people and ask them if theywould come on the podcast with you because next
time I would like to have just under 30, andI'll be the only old guy.
(51:24):
Paul could listen quietly on the side.
But no, I would really love to talk to morepeople that are younger, and I'd love to talk
to people that are working together as well andget a good perspective of what it is and then
we could use it to continue to promote.
Paul, I'm good to help out with young people inprint, whatever it is that you need.
(51:47):
People listening out around there, I think youshould call up and if they don't ask you for
money, maybe donate a few hundred pounds.
Give them a head start.
I promise you it'll come back and benefit you.
Ladies, would you have any final words youwanna say?
Great, love it.
No, I'm just kidding.
(52:08):
I'm just kidding.
I always do that.
You wanna say, words of encouragement to youngpeople listening?
I think as much as Paul obviously said, it iskind of like a very like male based kind of old
environment.
I think Laura and I kind of kind of perspectiveof it is a bit different because sort of coming
into the office, there's like the team I knowthat we work with, we're quite young, kind of a
(52:32):
head office, whether we're upstairs or in thedownstairs office, like it is quite a young
environment.
We're all very like active and trying to helpeach other.
We're quite proactive just trying to our jobdone.
And I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
So I think as much as, yeah, like I say, Paul'ssaying it's quite old, I think sort of it
(52:55):
depends upon who kind of walks into the office.
That obviously not in a rude way, but obviouslyit's quite dependent because I know our team
specifically is quite young and I think, like,that doesn't make us any less good at what
we're doing.
Like, we're very on it, like, trying to getstuff done.
So
Hey.
(53:15):
Even the old people had to start somewhereonce, and they made mistakes even if they don't
admit it.
The
enthusiasm that we get from the young people inASL is quite humbling really.
They're a cool bunch.
They're a cool bunch, it's good.
No, well, so I'll tell you this, the, you know,old industry, and I keep saying it, but when I
(53:35):
had my company, honest to God, the best peopleworking were the women because your attention
to detail is far superior than to most men.
Right?
So I think we need more women in the industryif we wanna be more efficient and be more
profitable.
I'm sure it'll cost us in the end something,but I think it is I think it is a good thing.
(53:59):
I I like some of the change I've seen going onin the industry.
Paul, any final words from you?
Very simple.
If you're a print company and you want toemploy young people, find our website.
It's really easy.
YPIP.co.uk.
Send us a message and we'll put you in touchwith the people that need to that are looking
(54:20):
for jobs.
Likewise, if you're a young person looking fora job, exactly the same in reverse.
And let's just open the lines of communicationbecause that's all it needs to be.
And I would say to those companies who have anaged workforce who are frightened of taking on
young people, grow up.
They're good people.
Get them in there and give them something to doand encourage them and make them feel like
(54:42):
valued members, not just somebody that's thereto make a cup of tea.
Everybody has to start somewhere.
Right?
Yeah, absolutely.
You don't come out a genius
not very I did, but that's the difference.
Right, cool.
First of all, thank you all for coming on.
Great conversation.
We're gonna continue the conversation.
Everybody listening, if you made it this far,as I always say, good for you.
(55:08):
Go spread this episode, tell somebody to listento it.
Tell young people, tell old people.
We gotta get more people listening to the youngpeople and encourage them.
If anybody knows anyone who wants to be on thepodcast, you've got something relevant to say,
something really good to say, then let me know.
I wanna help you say it.
(55:29):
Again, everybody, thank you so much for helpingme promote print all sorts.
And folks, we'll have you back on again for afollow-up in six months to a year.
By the way, quick question.
Has anybody been offered a job by any of yourcustomers?
I tell you what, I've taken lots of, I've seenschools and careers people have taken them to
(55:54):
print companies, to Konica and others showroom,and to a few of the manufacturer showrooms, and
to print companies, and I've had lots of peoplewho are not in print saying to me, how do I get
a job doing this?
Never mind the young people, the grown ups, howdo I get a job doing this?
And I think one or two people have had joboffers too.
Okay.
Cool.
Okay.
(56:14):
On that note, we're gonna say goodbye toeverybody.
Thank you for listening.
Tune in.
Everybody, thanks for coming on.
Thanks for your time, Warren, as always.
Pleasure.
Cheers.
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