Putting yourself in to play with Victor Pena

Grew up in a Mexican household, worked at construction and did some odd jobs to get through college. His love for technology and education gave him an outlet to provide for his business, for the team that he employs, and for his family.
Victor’s creativity and hunger lead him to creating different products from scratch through other people’s money and trust. Now the very first people who believed in him are now one of his largest growing partners as well. True enough that one great vision, the right mindset and discipline can get you far in life and reach for your goals.
Connect with Victor Pena at @omniprintonline.com and @victor_h_pena
This podcast is powered by DenTen Insurance - Insurance for the Greater Good. www.denten.io To listen to more and be inspired, visit www.michaelespositoinc.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This show is sponsored by den tenInsurance Services, helping businesses get the right
insurance for all their insurance needs.Visit den ten dot io to get a
quote d N T e N dotio and remember, when you buy an
insurance policy from dent ten, you'regiving back on a global scale. Hello

(00:21):
all, my entrepreneurs and business leaders, and welcome to the Michael Esposito Show,
where I interview titans of industry inorder to inform, educate, and
inspire you to be great. Myguest today grew up in a Mexican household,
work in construction and odd jobs toget through college. Tech and education

(00:41):
gave him an outlet to provide forhis business, for the team that he
employs, and for his family.He's an inspiring leader building a million dollar
brand, almost a billion and creatinga deeper connection with his audience. As
the chief executive officer of Omniprint International, which is a multimillion dollar printer manufacturer,

(01:03):
he's an experienced leader of innovative teams. Please welcome Victor Penya. Hey
man, that sounds awesome. Thankyou so much for having me. Super
pumped to be here and like reallydeliver some value for the audience, and
I know you will. You know, I stumbled on my words there and
saying billion dollars instead of million dollars, but I know that billion dollars.

(01:27):
Hey, you know, you knowwhat on the wall it says the vision
is to create a billion dollar organizationalongside three thousand team members helping millions of
creators. So that's that's what we'reout doing. Yeah, I love it,
and I knew that that word wouldn'tscare you one bit. So let's
let's jump in a little bit.Let's go before we get into this billion

(01:49):
dollar world that you're living in.You know, you got some really great
posts out there on your social media, out there hanging out with Grant Cardone.
We're all jealous, but you hadhumble beginnings. And I love this
story and it's so important for peopleto hear because so many, so many
entrepreneurs, so many business leaders outthere. They think about their challenges and

(02:10):
what's in front of them, andmaybe it's the childhood that they didn't have,
or the experiences that they didn't have, or a disability that they have,
and they're like, well, that'swhy I can't make it. That's
why I can't become successful. Andhere you are growing up in a Mexican
household, as as I said inthe intro, here working different jobs just
to get through it all, andnow you're standing here as the CEO of

(02:35):
a multimillion dollar company. So I'minterested in this mindset that you developed through
the years and during those hard times. That's a that's a great question.
So dude, I came to theUS. I believe I was like seven,
so somewhere around eighty seven. I'mfrom eighty and uh, you know,

(02:58):
no English there the you know,we're a big family, like a
lot of a lot of Mexican families. I'm like number two of six kids,
and so one day we picked upand came to the States. Uh
and and uh, like that's notan easy gig, uh for sure.

(03:20):
But so but the main thing isthere was always this mindset of like working
hard, getting it done and andjust just pushing through whatever the challenges are.
Obviously not speaking any English, uh, going through all the challenges that
any kid goes through, uh isuh, you know, it is really

(03:45):
challenging. So when it comes tolike coming out of that stuff, uh
and doing what I do now,it makes it real easy, you know,
in comparison. So the my mymen, Like, my main message
to people is that doesn't matter likewhere you're really coming from. What only
matters is that what what you thinkyou can get to? M H.

(04:11):
Because I just remember even so thefirst time I went exploring, I was
around two years old. My momfreaked out, but I literally like went
out the front door and I tookoff right. I could barely walk.
I'm like, I'm wobbling, right, and but I always remember that I
wanted to explore. I want todo something big. I don't know where

(04:35):
that comes from, but it's somethingthat I'm I'm continuously chasing, right And
obviously you know, I I youknow, my mom found me super fast,
and uh, you know, let'slet's just say that, uh,
there's no easy way to get outafter that, right, But but you

(04:57):
know that that's kind of the upbringing. And you know, uh, I've
been kind of getting told lately,Hey, you gotta pull out some stories
from the past. You gotta pullout some some of these steps that you
went through so that you can connectwith people that maybe in that step right
now and maybe in that journey.And I'm starting to kind of start remembering

(05:24):
stuff like that, right, becauseI want to talk to the person I
was, the lost kid. Iwant to talk to the the entrepreneur they're
just starting, doesn't know anything aboutanything, you know, I want to
I want to talk to myself whenI was in high school, you know,

(05:44):
and give me some some guidance.You know. These kind of things
that I start sharing with people willwill resonate more. Right. So yeah,
man, that's that's kind of alike that start. Yeah, you
know, it's it's because people wedon't realize the DNA that we have a

(06:05):
lot of times, you know,we're like, no, I just I
was just a grinder. I justworked really hard. But in the end,
you hear stories about your childhood andthey're like, no, you were
always exploring, you were always tryingto find new things. You were always
asking questions. You know, allof that is part of our development and
leads us to where we are today. You brought up that your high school

(06:29):
self and wanted to share some someknowledge. What what are some of the
things that you would shared with thisthis high school kid today with what you
know today. Yeah, you know, there's a couple of things, all
right, Uh, and I'll prefaceit with this. Okay, I wasn't

(06:49):
banned. Uh back then, Iwas like the fat kid, okay.
Uh. And uh, the afterschool we would go and do construction stuff,
right because and in a Mexican household, basically everybody's in charge of helping

(07:14):
and bringing in the dough. Allright, So three thirty rolls around,
you know, big old old truckcomes full of trash, and uh,
you know, I'm coming out withmy friends. There's a regular occasion,
right and then and I'm like,man, who's Who's who? Whose truck

(07:36):
is that? And then and thenmy dad will go over, roll down
the windows and he'd be like,hey, come on, let's go.
We gotta throw this trash away beforethe dump closes. I'm like, oh
shit, all right, yeah,I guess that's me. So after school's
work, right, and so sothere's there's a couple of messages because I

(07:56):
used to resent that, right becauseI'm like, man, I want to
hang out with my friends. Iwant to like do a little bit of
drugs. I don't know, getdrunk, I don't know whatever. Whatever
they did after school, right,hang out with some girls. But no,
I was working. But fast forwardthese these skills that I learned,

(08:18):
the hard work, the focus onstuff that's that like that's priority, really
helped me navigate through all that stuffeven til now. You know, I'm
a big real estate investor and focusedon that, but my construction background really
helps because I know what it takesto rehab a place. I know what

(08:41):
it takes to do that. Sothe advice I have is, you know,
really lean into that discipline and leaninto doing something because I know people
that were super popular, super greatat that time and that was their height
of their life. Yeah. Youyou talk about that today too on your

(09:05):
social media channels about discipline and creatinghabits, and I saw one of them,
and it's funny you brought up thefat kid in school, because like,
you're you're grinding now, like andyou're you're running these businesses, but
you're also making time to exercise andand take care of your body and take
care of your health. And sothat leads me to ask the question of,

(09:28):
like what your daily habits look like. You know, like I said,
you know, you give us aglimpse in your life on social media
with with your workout in the morningand waking up early and and I know
you like your coffee, so Ikind of got that glimpse. But what
is your morning routine? Like,what are you doing when you get up
to break those cycles that lead usdown a path where, like you said,

(09:50):
where that high school kid is hangingout with their friends and doing the
things that aren't leading them to wherethey need to go or want to go.
Yeah, that's a great point becauseearly in my entrepreneur career, I
would literally like Google, like whatdoes somebody that's actually making it do every
single day? And I thought thatif I did that, then then I

(10:13):
could be successful too. Right,There's there's a little bit of truth to
that, But the reality is,you know they're they're The morning routine is
only generating discipline, right. It'snot giving you like the strategies behind building

(10:33):
teams or marketing programs are selling investing. It doesn't give you that, right,
So, but it does help youwith discipline. So what I do
is I just don't negotiate in themorning of like what I need to be
doing, because I know that ifI don't hit the gym, I'm not

(10:56):
burning off what I need to burnstress wise, I'm not putting that that
physical stress on my muscles and mymind and I'm not getting that that blood
flow that I need to be ableto create, right right. But if
I don't, if I say,oh man, it's cold out, uh,

(11:18):
you know, for example, thisweek, I have thrown infection and
all that, Oh I'm sick.Maybe I should you know, do something
and like just relax. And thensomething kicks in and it says, this
is what we do in the thirdperson, kind of like weird status.

(11:39):
Uh, we get up, weget up, we show up, and
if I have to maybe then barfand then go home afterwards, then at
least I showed up, that's right, you know. So so the discipline
part is the reason that I dothat. Yeah, And that discipline gets
you through those hard times, getsyou through those hard days, because uh,

(12:00):
it's it's like, not every daydo we want to get up and
do all of those things, thoseroutines of exercise and journaling and meditating and
thinking and and all that other stuffthat goes into it. But when you
have the discipline to do it iswhen it almost makes it easy, because
like you have no choice, rightyeah, yep, yep. Plus you
feel guilty. It's part of yourday. There's there's times when I was

(12:26):
struggling, I wasn't doing those things. So so that's the main difference.
So a lot of people think,especially now, uh Michael, is that
the reality is everybody wants to becomfortable. Everybody wants this balance and this
zen. But it really depends onyour goals because I don't see my mentors

(12:48):
big people that do that are doingthat I want to do. Uh have
that? Like you create your ownbalance in your life, right. You
do things that you don't want todo. I do things that I don't
want to do all the time.What are some of those things I don't
like? Uh? For example,all things hr I don't like right right,

(13:16):
especially in California because it's not myplace of creative genius and happiness.
But it's a must do right right. Uh. If if I have to
coach somebody because they're not being accountable, getting results, you know, being
being part of what our core valuesare here, Uh, then I have

(13:39):
to do that, right. ButI don't. I don't. I don't
like spending my time doing that.Yeah, you're you're a big time creator.
Uh. There's there's a lot thatwe're going to talk about. There
in terms of the creator part ofthings. But while we're on this hr
team thing, you're also a hugeteam builder and creating these large teams of

(14:00):
people. I'm interested in in acouple of things there, and I'll let
you just take it whichever way youdecide to break it down. Is is
recruitment. You know, how areyou recruiting such great high talent that that
really buy into your vision? Andthen and how are you cultivating them in
terms of like training them and teachingthem and coaching them as you just said,
you'll if you'll, you'll pull themone one on one, which,

(14:22):
right there is some insight as tosome of the culture that you're teaching there.
And and the other thing that Inoticed is that you're also bringing them
along and things. So how doyou keep them always involved and always to
where they're interested in where you're goingas a company. Yeah, that man,
that's a great question because it's Ilike, my my main job this

(14:46):
year is to keep evolving as aleader and be a better leader by the
end of the year than I waslast. Right, because look at the
beginning, you you pretty much justbring in and you hire somebody that has
a pulse Okay, you're breathing boomhired right, okay, and that leads

(15:07):
to like tons of challenges. Soright now, it's incredibly hard to get
hired here. Even in my realestate business, it's incredibly hard to get
on. And people say, well, hey, it's hard to find people
and all that, we just likeput more people in the funnel and make

(15:30):
it way harder to get hired here. You know, some of the things
people have to do our core valuespresentations as part of their interviews, like
literally, you have to present howyour values align with our values, and
you have to do a full onpresentation for the executive team. The wrong
person will find reasons why that's toomuch, and the right the right person

(15:54):
will do it, will show up, will create a presentation and will be
better you know for doing that rightand and uh, so we don't get
people in here with a low mindset, and that won't do the things to
align with the core values of whywe're here to come to work in the

(16:15):
first place. And remember at thebeginning, I had no core values,
had no mission, had no vision, Like literally, the mission is do
not go bankrupt, make payroll right, uh, And now the vision is
helping our creators out there right,a million of them, and build a

(16:36):
billion dollar organization with three thousand teammembers. It's a bigger it's a it's
a huge vision. So the rightperformers, they want to have some big
targets to get to UH. Andwe just did our yearly kind of kickoff
meeting where we share exactly month bymonth, quarter by quarter, what we

(17:00):
have to do for our team toreach the goals. And I was very
clear my job is to build leadersand figure out who's willing to do the
work to become a partner in theorganization because I don't need to be one
hundred percent owner. That's a changein mindset for me. And I'm down

(17:22):
to mentor people that want to dothe work, but I'm not going to
carry them on my back, right. I want to go to this this
shift that you have, which I'msure many entrepreneurs and business leaders are out
there experiencing where you shifted from,like you said, thinking about just making
payroll and not going bankrupt, whichis truly an experience. And so many

(17:48):
entrepreneurs like yourself and business leaders likeyourself have come on the show and spoke
about that about just making payroll andso grateful for where they are today.
When does how does that shift happened? And where when does it happen?
Yeah? I think it happened forme. It happened when I learned and

(18:11):
took the mentorship to figure out howto build a big business. Because look,
I'm a I'm a recovering engineer.I try to figure everything out myself
and and that's really slow. Sonow I just align myself with people that

(18:33):
are the biggest in that field,and I bring them value and try to
build relationships and learn from there.And that's how that's what led me to,
Hey, I gotta have a bigenough opportunity for people to want to
do the work that it takes,you know. I want to show them
how to reach their goals and winand and give them the strategies I can't

(18:59):
you know, I can't like makea horse drink, but I could lead
them to water. Right, That'show that's that that's saying. But it's
true here for your for like ourteam. So so I just learned from
people that are doing it big andand apply these things and model u for
what I want, you know,and take responsibility for doing that. Yeah,

(19:22):
and the other thing that you broughtup to is about operating from a
different mindset and talking about how youdon't hire people operating from a low mindset.
And I'd be interested if you canmaybe just describe or or just kind
of like unpack that what a lowmindset looks like and really what you're looking
for. And while this might soundlike a recruiting pitch, it's really more
of a helping people realize where theymight be right now and what they should

(19:45):
aspire to be for exactly. Andthat's a great question. So my main
things that I look for is commitment, right, and I did a big
talk about commitment. We'll post itsomewhere U you know, from our kickoff.
But the reality is you have afew ways where you commit, and

(20:07):
number one is your self education.What are you doing every single day to
educate yourself, because that shows commitment. An organization is mandatory to train every
single day in the morning. Ifyou're If you don't, you're out.
I'm paying you to train, I'mpaying you, I'm paying the trainer,

(20:30):
I'm paying the platform. The ideais for you to take to get better
and to train before you start trainingon our clients. I want you serving
clients. I don't want you trainingand being rusty with clients. Right,
And it's okay if you don't wantto do it, and I'll help you
figure it out. If you don'twant to do it where and where you

(20:56):
know, I can mentor you togo not do it somewhere else else,
you know, but the right mindset, people actually say, hey, thank
you, I really need wanted tolearn in this particular subject. I want
to get developed here. And you'llsee what the commitment is from that mindset,

(21:17):
right, So that's an important one. And also like it really shows
me that you want to reach yourgoals for yourself because if you won't do
that, you're not going to reachgoals for our clients. You're not going
to reach goals for the organization ifyou won't do it for yourself. That's

(21:38):
huge right there about them doing itfor themselves, because I mean it goes
back to that question I asked youearlier about like how do you get them
still involved in the company, stillhyped and amped about what you're doing,
Like you have videos of you guysat conferences and your employees are like,
this was exciting, this was great. And I'm like, how does he
getting that energy out of them?But you're right, it starts with them

(21:59):
of their desire to improve on theirown. I think this kind of transitions
a little bit too into sales andinto being a great salesperson. And you
were just talking about like you know, you're you're, you have the We're
also going to get into how youhave innovated and created new technology and other
things out there, but you justsaid it right, you don't want a

(22:22):
salesperson or one of your professionals rustyor not knowing something and learning on the
fly while dealing with a client,And that translates right into sales right,
one hundred percent. One hundred percent. So our sales team gets extra sales
training, extra coaching all the timebecause uh, look, you could you
you could be the best, thebest salesperson and you you get rusty in

(22:48):
one call the end and maybe peoplecan can you know, say oh man,
that's BS. But the reality isI've seen it. I've done it
myself. I used to do myown sales here when I started the business,
and I would kill it in onecall and then the next the next

(23:08):
call, it would be complete garbageand I knew that I fumbled it.
But it takes that that self awarenessand lowering your ego to be like,
Okay, well man, I couldhave done that call better. Hey,
listen to it and see where Ifumbled it. What did you say?

(23:30):
As the main difference between or eventoday, the main difference between a good
sales call and a sales call thatyou call fumbled. Yeah, there's a
few ways to fumble it where you'rethe only one doing the talking the whole
time, and you're talking at someoneversus figuring out how you can coach them
and help them align yourself with yourproduct. Right. Another another big fumble

(23:59):
is when somebody's ready and motivated togo. They already are there. They
ate the food, they drank thewine. Uh and but but you don't
do the right thing. You don'tyou don't you know, ask them for
the sale, right, you're healthyHelperton. And there's that fear of of

(24:19):
of the sale. There's that fearof of asking for it and fear of
rejection. And what does that soundlike? It sounds like, well,
let me send you more information.I'm here for you. Well, I'll
follow up with an email. UhNo, It's like Hey, have you
heard enough to make a decision becausewe have this promotion that's ending an X

(24:44):
y Z date, right, andI want to get you in front of
the line because you know we're backordered. This thing's selling so hot.
Right There's that's a different thing thanthan you know. I'll follow up with
you next week, right, Yeah, And then and then the energy he's
gone from that call. You justhad all this great energy and it's gone.
You're also and like I said,just just second to go creating products,

(25:08):
so Cheetah and several other printing products. Well, before I ask you
where this development comes from, Iwant to just go to your social media
for a second because it's incredible.This is this is so cool for me
as an interviewer, is when Ican go to someone social media channel and

(25:29):
actually learn learn stuff, like learnthings for myself, but also learn about
them. So there's like different thingsand where I can actually bring it up
in the show because it actually relatesto what we're talking about. So you've
developed all of these different products,and in one of your videos, you're
like people are wondering like how doI develop videos? How do I develop

(25:51):
these products and innovative designs and allthis other stuff, and you're at a
convention and you're just walking with withyour camera in hand, and you're like,
it's because I'm not like just talkingto people. I'm going I'm here
by myself learning and going up todifferent booths and learning about the new technology.
So I thought that was so cool. So it's kind of like going
into my question here about like,you know, you start this printing company,

(26:15):
where where does it come off?So you just said you're you're recovering
engineer. I love that. Wheredoes it come off to where you start
developing your own machines, your owntools, and start learning more about the
industry itself. Yeah, so it'sall it's all kind of coming from like
opportunity, right. I kind ofsee an opportunity because I'm really close to

(26:38):
our customers. Uh you know personally, I'm the only CEO that's responding to
their DMS. I'm the only CEOthat's helping them with their mentorship and all
that, and it really helps meto see where they're at, where the
client is and where they might beneeding. I'll visit shops, I'll do
I'll do whatever, right, andthen I lead innovation. So I don't

(27:02):
like bureaucracy anywhere in the middle froma client to creating a new product,
right. So, and what happensis at the beginning, I convinced a
manufacturer to build a product for usthat I thought would sell way better than
what's in the market. Uh.So, you know, I flew to

(27:26):
Korea and uh, you know,they they didn't have to see me.
They didn't have to like, youknow, I was early twenties I think
at that point, and they hadother business they were they were already making
machines for other applications. And Isay, hey, look, I'm gonna
be your biggest your biggest client,your biggest seller one day. And h

(27:52):
all you have to do is buildthis thing that I have in my mind.
And uh, you know, doit for on the first one.
Uh and and uh you know it'llit'll pay off for you, all right.
And then and then they're like,uh, okay, man, you're
nuts. But you know, fastforward, you know, we're partners now.

(28:15):
Our products is the only thing that'sbuilt in that facility. We build
half of them here in California.Uh and and uh we have a strong
relationship ever since then they don't haveany other clients anymore, and I'm part
owner of that company. And it'sall because the building products that can be

(28:38):
successful because they bring value to ourclients. Looking at it like that,
I'm still trying to duplicate that asI duplicate, you know, some of
these key things that are needed forme to grow. But the reality is
if you build stuff. So letme simplify it. Ask ask customers what

(29:03):
they want you to build, andthen sell it to them and build it.
The first machine I ever sold didn'texist, right, Yeah, I
said, hey, see this table, just picture this machine that does this
and that. But I do needyou to pay for it so that I

(29:26):
could build it. And you know, some some some people took that chance.
That that's incredible, And you know, I'm interested in the mindset again
to go back to that of thisthis mindset you said, a young twenty
year old flies out to Korea andsays, do it for free. And
I'm just interested in the mindset againof what were you thinking or what what

(29:48):
was going you know, like,what was going through your mind? What
was what was the psych up tothat? What where? Where did that
that inner strength come from for you? You know, honestly, it comes
from hunger. M hunger could doa lot, right, It comes from
like I'm starving right like right now, you know, uh, And I've

(30:11):
always had that. It's it's justuh when when you grow up with nothing
pretty much just the basics, uh, that that hunger you could either use
it for good, you know,or or you can like use it for
for like nonproductive things, right uh, just till now, Like I I

(30:34):
feel like I'm starting over a newphase and I'm like the hungriest that I've
ever been. Yeah, yeah,you're you're super hungry. And another quote
that I found from you, whichI thought was cool and I'd like to
jump into now, is is themarketing aspect? And you said it's it's
the wild wild West out there rightnow, and you're doing a lot of

(30:56):
different things to find you or tocarve your path. And I can see
that you're hungry because you're you're doingit. You're in it, you know.
I'm I gotta tell you, likea little insight on me too,
is is I'm hungry too. Right. So I'm I'm here at the iHeart
Studio doing this podcast with you.This morning, I did an Instagram Live.

(31:17):
I've committed to just doing an Instagramlive every morning to inspire, to
help people grow and to motivate themin their days. But it's also to
grow my insurance business. So Igot an insurance business too. You know
where that's Denton, that's my insurancecompany. And then I added onto my
plate, I said, you knowwhat, I'm at the iHeart studio recording
podcasts. Why not do my ownlittle podcast where it's just me. So

(31:40):
I started doing that. And thenrecently, because i'm here, I've I've
heard of some different availabilities, someon air availability, and I started inquiring.
I started saying, like, hey, how can I get how can
I be the guy that's on airright like I've been doing the podcast show
and they start telling me about it. Now, that's probably not the path
I'm gonna go to, but I'mhungry man. And so I'm seeing what

(32:00):
you're doing out there, and I'minterested in some of those things. And
I mean, I mean, I'minterested in What I mean by that is
not me personally, of course mepersonally, but I mean, how can
you share with what with our audiencewhat you're doing. What are the things
that you see that are sticking thatare resonating with your clientele. Yeah,

(32:21):
that's a great question. Man,I'm super proud that you're doing that and
you're leveling yourself up and like you'reputting yourself in play. You know,
that's the number one thing. Youput yourself in, the opportunity in the
room. If you didn't put yourselfin that room, you wouldn't know there's
opportunity for on air, you know, you would have been comfortable with what
you're doing. I tell my team, like, don't listen to what I'm

(32:45):
saying, like, look what Ido if if you want to be where
I'm at, or even more,look at what I'm doing, like you
can you can model it. Youknow, you're not gonna see me calling
sick to anything. You're not gonnasee me like not outwork anyone. You're

(33:07):
not gonna see me not outlearn,you know, and you're not gonna see
uh like I'm gonna outpush. Yeah. Right. So, so these are
some fundamentals that are just ingrained becauseas a leader in any organization, you're
the top limitation. So so forexample, I treat it like if I'm

(33:34):
if I'm mentoring my team here oneday they're gonna be taking over stuff.
Then I have to show them thatwhen you have a throat infection, when
you when you're sick or whatever,you show up even if your eyes are
bleeding, you show up for yourteam, right, because that puts you
in play. Okay, And andmarketing is very important because as as a

(34:02):
lot of tech people, a lotof engineers, they want to build the
highest quality widget with the highest youknow, specifications and the best the best
of the best. But if nobodyknows you, there's no way that you're
going to sell that thing. Right. So many years ago, I'm like,

(34:24):
you know, I wrote my journalit just said, like, hey,
create a marketing campaign because I hadnot only did I not want to
talk to people, because I'm anintrovert kind of guy. I don't.
I don't. It doesn't fill meup. Like my wife, she gets
all this energy from people. Me, I guess sucked dry, you know.
So, But like I said,I do things that I don't want

(34:45):
to do to get better. Andthen from there, you know, we're
one of the most aggressive marketers inour industries. And that's because we have
to make our own lane when itcomes to that. So we're the we're
like doing a whole bunch of youknow, YouTube, social media, email

(35:07):
shows, uh, boot camps,pretty much whatever. Our competition is not
at We're doing it like super hard, right, So so everybody can do
that in their own businesses. Yeah, I love that. By the way,
I did see that in your wifewhen she pops up behind you in
the video and one of the videosthat you had when you guys were we're

(35:30):
talking about the multifamily houses and yourtrip to Puerto Rico. I thought that
was really I could tell you couldsee the dynamic shift. But it's really
great that you put yourself out infront there, you know, in terms
of this like creation that you do. So you're doing a lot of marketing,
a lot of video marketing. You'reyou're putting yourself in front of the
camera. You're going over your threedaily habits and all these different things.

(35:51):
You know. So many people askme so right, So they go to
me, they look at me togo, I'm I'm an insurance guy,
right, I'm I'm your insurance agentor I own an insurance come and they're
like, well, what does thepodcast, Michael have to do with that?
What does doing these videos have todo with that, and I can
go down that road as to whatit all does. But I'm interested more
interested into yours of So you're aprinting company, right, you you sell

(36:13):
these giant printers to these apparel companiesmaking T shirts, hats, all sorts
of crazy things. What is creatingcontent serve that cause? Right? And
I you know why I'm asking thatquestion. So I'm interested in in your
response to that. Yeah, definitely. So look the way you want to

(36:35):
look at it is you can't ROIcontent right off the bat, Okay,
but you do, like I'm massivewhen it comes to like, what what
are we making at the end ofthe day from these marketing activities? Right?
Because this is a marketing activity.But let me let me share with

(36:57):
you tactically how it works. Forexample, in our in our trade shows,
we'll do a hybrid show that wecall it a three sixty trade show
experience. And what it is isinstead of just uh getting machine getting machines
and putting them in a convention centerand then just waiting to see who walks

(37:20):
by your booth, we actually doa stage inside. We invite influencers,
we invite key customers, we invitebig customers that that may not even be
our customers yet. And what we'lldo is, you know, I'll interview
them and I'll kind of force themto tell me how they're making money and

(37:44):
how others can copy what they're doingto make money. And that gives value
to everyone that's listening, whether they'regoing to be buying or not. You
know, we track whether they buyor not. By the way, what
you what you have to be doing. But you're creating relationships, so tactically,
I can have a guest on likeyou have me as a guest,

(38:08):
and we get to know each other. I get to know the goals of
the individual, like who they areas a person, and maybe I want
to work with them, right,And they get to know what we offer,
what our passion is to help entrepreneurs, and when it's time for them
to get equipment, then they'll getit from us. Right. One guest,

(38:30):
I'll give you an example, evenmore granular. One guest runs a
big successful shop, has like fiftyunits of the competitors product. And I
had him on my show and weended up, you know, setting up
a good relationship. He invested inour real estate fund. He's getting equipment

(38:53):
for his next generation. Good dude, good family. And it all came
from doing content together. Right.Uh, you have to think of content
differently right now. You have tothink about it like it is your SEO
from back in the day where youknew you know that if you didn't have

(39:14):
your SEO on your site, peoplecan find you on Google and all that.
Right now, content is going tobe, uh that that same thing.
It's in that same journey and thenpeople get to see get insights of
to who you are, uh,and then and then connect with you more.
Right. So that's that's the powerof it. And and uh,

(39:37):
if you're not doing content, guysout there, make sure you start.
Doesn't matter what you do, juststart by documenting your day. Yeah,
you know. And and I likethat you said it too to to kind
of cap it off with the withthe content. Is that you know again
multimillion dollars. Omniprint is a multimilliondollar company. You got a a number

(39:59):
of employee And I think the perceptionof people, the perception people might have
in terms of creating content would beit needs to be this formalized process.
It needs to be this clean,professionally done stuff. And on your YouTube
channel, on your and everywhere onyour social media. There are there is
videos like that that are very professionallyput together. But also there's these personalized

(40:23):
videos where, like I said,it's just you holding your phone talking into
your Bluetooth and that's it. Andso there's this like nice mix. And
so I would say, take alook at your content. Anybody listening,
not anybody I know you're listening,and take a look at the content that
that Victor's putting out there, becauseI think it shows this really nice.

(40:44):
You know, we have all theseentrepreneurs, solopreneurs, small business owners,
unsure as to which path to take, and it's just like, hey,
look you could take any path.It's really about, like you just said,
put it out there, right,don't be afraid of it. I
love that. I love that,Sharon one hundred percent and all at this
part. You know my team here, they're pros. They know what to

(41:07):
do. We have great stuff,great great videos, great editing. But
we didn't start off like that,right. We started off with no studio,
no nothing. We would go andshoot with whatever somebody else's camera and
customer sites before and I'll tell youthis, Uh, you're better off shooting

(41:29):
and posting something that is not greatthan not doing anything at all, you
know. So that's that's the mainrule that we use here. Now we
have we have a lot of structureand we're always working to get better.
If you see our events at fiveo'clock, we have to have a full

(41:52):
edited recap of how the day wentand a call to action to join us
for day two. That's not easyto do. Ask the team. They
gotta be shooting content all day,they gotta be uh setting it up,
and they gotta be editing on thespot in an event. Uh you know,
maybe in the hallway, maybe inthe cafe, maybe you know,

(42:15):
while they're walking around, but theyknow it has to be out by the
end of the day, right,and it has to be professional. It
has to like fit our parameters,right, it has to be good stuff.
It's so cool to see creators workingon the fly. I've many of
us. If you're if you're payingattention, you you actually probably have seen
it happen. You just might notbe paying attention to it. But it's

(42:37):
you know, from from my endand from your end, I'm sure when
you see it at a at atrade show or something it's pretty cool.
I'm laughing at it, and Ifeel bad for this, but you can
see them. They're stressed out there, like digging into the keyboard, they're
moving stuff into their editor or whateverit is. That's really cool, And
I could just imagine, so Iempathize with your team. I could just

(42:57):
imagine to stress they're under to beable to get that much content and out
within that short time frame, tobe able to get it over to the
next day. Yeah. And youknow the thing is is I see the
potential of what they could do,and it's way bigger. So every time
we stretch it, every time wedo something bigger and better than the last
time, and then we hammer it, we get it done. It's successful.

(43:22):
Now they know they could do more, they have a wider skill,
and then anything below that now isless stressful because they've already been there.
Yeah, and that helps them inthe future. Right. They might be
like not, they might want tokill me during that time, but then
afterwards they're like, Okay, yeah, I did it. I'm badass.

(43:45):
You know. Yeah. It's it'slike building a muscle. It's it's building
a muscle. It's like you tenpush ups one day, twenty the next
and you keep going, I thinkwe're you know, we can follow that
path that trend. Something else thatthat you do that I think is also
very important is and you just saidit just now too right, where you're

(44:06):
the leader of the organization, soyou're pretty much you're you're the cap.
People look at you and they're like, all right, that's that's where I'm
trying trying to strive through. Sofor you, you have to surround yourself
with people that you strive and aspireto be like as well. And that
was again another thing I noticed aboutyou is that you surround yourself with people
that are that are also growth mindset. And I mentioned one of them in

(44:29):
the beginning of the show, GrantCardonne, and you're out there, you're
with him, and you can seethat he has a big impact on you
and what you're doing in the multifamily home space. So I'm interested in
that connection there for you and someof the other mentors that are that are
serving in your life. Yeah,definitely, that's a great question. Uh,
you know, I just started byconsuming free YouTube videos from Grant when

(44:53):
I had no clue about sales,I had no clue about how to grow
the business money wise. I alsohad no blue about how to like buy
apartments and how to get into realestate. Right, So I consume like
free stuff from him for years andI'm like, dude, I really resonate
because this guy's tough, but hegets results and then he's a he's a

(45:15):
good dude at the end of it. And then and I can model that,
right Uh and and fast forward.Uh, just recently, we did
a reality show for for multifamily realestate in Vegas and he's doing it like
in every city and basically all myapartments are in Vegas. The idea is,

(45:38):
uh, it's called real Estate Kings, and he picks the top guy
in the in the in that areafor multifamily and uh it's kind of like,
uh, you know Survivor meets theApprentice, Right, Uh, he'll
he'll go to your properties. Uh, he'll underwrite. Uh, he'll like

(46:00):
hammer you. And then you endup in a selection process with a few
people in a boardroom and then nowyou have to slice each other's throat to
win. Right. Uh. It'sa really cool once once it comes out,
like check that out. I'm notsure if it's gonna be on Discovery
or where. But uh, butanyways, you know, he ended up

(46:21):
partnering with me on one of mydeals there. I ended up you know,
being being the guy and and nowlike, uh, it's a lot
of credibility. You know, Igo to events, you know, we
use we use them for training,you know, we we uh you know,
I invest in coaching from them,and and now like we're partners and

(46:45):
it's crazy, right and that andthat's that just well was somebody on the
other side of a YouTube video before. But I've learned a ton, you
know, and I wouldn't have uh, you know, any of the real
estate if it wasn't for the mentorshipthat I got from there. Yeah,
what's one of the things that you'velearned? Uh? So, I mean
so just one just uh myself includedin that on on the YouTube side is

(47:09):
like, I've learned so much.I've watched a lot of grand videos.
For me, I've watched a lotof Ryan Sirhan and I've learned so much
and have I've mimicked and mirrored alot of the things that he does and
aspire to get to that level aswell. So we can learn so much
from this content that we get onYouTube podcast books like I've read the ten
X book from Grant as well.But I'm interested in what's something that you

(47:32):
might have learned firsthand from him?You know, so you've spent some some
alone time with him, some personaltime, and what's one of the things
that he actually just whispered in yourear kind of thing? Yeah, you
know, one thing is important,uh is the actual doing of the thing,
right. Uh So commit first andfigure it out later is very true.

(47:54):
You know, a lot of thegreat stuff that we've done, we've
we've just said, hey, we'regoing to do it. Uh, we
start the process and actually start doingit instead of start planning it, and
we end up, uh, youknow, delivering at the end of it.
Right, So that that's super importantbecause a lot of people plan and

(48:19):
never execute. Uh. And theguy's an executor, if you see,
like and and I just see likeevery time that I feel like I'm overwhelmed,
I look at what he's doing,and he's doing literally ten times as
much. And half of the timeI'm like, oh, all right,
so then I'm just being a bachlike I says, right, you know.

(48:42):
Uh so so those those are somany things, and now I also
you know have a uh you knowhis partner, which ended up being his
partner Brandon Dawson as a mentor ofmine as well. And he's more on
the actual operational side of things.He's in the scaling side of things and
the people's side of things. Howdo you take that massive action and turning

(49:08):
it into it's something you can operationalizein a system? Right that that's Brandon
and the guy is a badass,you know. So now when I'm thinking
about where do I want to be, I'm just looking at the two guys
at the top, and I'm modelingwhat they're doing. Yeah. Yeah,

(49:31):
that witnessing plays such a huge role, and witnessing him taking action on things.
I speak about it a lot hereon the podcast and in my lives.
Like I said, it's it's justdoing the thing, Like you said,
so many times, we spend somuch time planning and eventually it's like
you just gotta do it. Youjust gotta do it. And I heard

(49:53):
another quote that I like, failforward, like you know what you messed
up, just keep keep moving forward, right, Yeah, But you know,
failure is interesting, you know.Uh Me, Like I'm I'm very
used to it. I'm like failingon stuff all the time. And the

(50:14):
main the main difference is like whatlike if you've set up the goal big
enough, then you'll try to goaround it for the next thing and fail
forward through the next thing, right, maybe get and get some wins out
of the failure. Right And andspeaking of failing, uh, you know

(50:36):
you're you're an angel investor. Andthe reason why I tee it up with
speaking of failing is you're an angelinvestor. And and that's a risky business,
right because you're investing in in people'sdreams. You're you're helping young entrepreneurs,
old entrepreneurs and wherever they are intheir life, right, that doesn't
matter. The point is is you'rehelping entrepreneurs and business leaders execute on their

(50:57):
their dream and that's a risky businessto to to be a part of.
But that's something that you chose todo, is to be an angel investor.
And I'm interested in and what thatlooks like for you. And you
know, I think also if youcould also define what angel investor is two
people out there, because there's thismyth about what it is, and I
think you know, speaking of somebodyfirsthand who is one rather than googling it.

(51:21):
I'm interested in what what you defineas an angel investor. Yeah,
so so that that's a like evolvedover time. Right. So traditionally,
Uh, an angel investor is basicallysomebody that believes in your idea and it's
willing to give you money for itso that you can go out and execute
it. You know, this islike pre banks, pre financials, like

(51:44):
you literally have nothing, right,uh, just like some some that just
that that big mission, right andand uh you know that that's that's basically
what it is. And now uh, you know, I'm I'm really taking
on you know, business owners thatare that are already have some punches,

(52:07):
you know that already have some gritthey're at there are a certain they're making
some revenue, and then I couldhelp them, uh consulting them into the
next level. And they got toinvest in the consulting at the beginning.
And then then then I'll I'll lookat if it's the right entrepreneur for me

(52:28):
to partner with. Right, That'show I'm doing things now because the number
one thing that I figured out isthe business owner that's willing to invest in
themselves and get to the next level, will do it. The one that
that is like questioning whatever it isthat you're charging. You're better off not

(52:53):
investing or partnering in that company,because I can tell you the number one
thing that I do is I putmy money and investing in mentorship of my
own self. Every single year,I probably easily spend half a million dollars
a year on my own mentorship.Wow. Yeah that sorry. So the

(53:15):
only thing is that if somebody's notwilling to invest a fraction of that,
then that means they're not willing todo the things. If you would,
let's say you give them that advicein those marching orders for free, the
only one that wins is whoever implementsand normally whoever pays for something shows up

(53:36):
for themselves. And that goes backto your employees. Like you said earlier
too, it's like you're you're investingin them too. You're an angel investor
in them because you spoke about thatearlier. And in terms of like that
self that self development is that ifthey're if they're not invested in them in
their own self development, then they'reprobably not a good fit for omniprint.
And it seems to be that wayas well in terms of angel investing as

(53:59):
an angel, and it's so truein life too, is like when when
you got skin in the game,you're gonna work a little bit harder and
and it says so much more aboutthe person. Another thing that I read
about you was it says, whichwhich I thought was interesting, a growing
philanthropist. And I'm interested in whata growing philanthropist looks like because you know,

(54:22):
if you're donating and you're giving,you're a philanthropist. But in your
mind there's still so much more roomto develop and to grow as a philanthropist.
So I'm interested in what your bigdream is there. Yeah, so
there there's a I've always given back, even when I didn't have money,
I would give back to whatever thecause was. I like the main things

(54:45):
that we support is like female entrepreneurs, the troops, uh we and we
support like kids kids programs, rightbecause a lot of uh you know,
growing up, a lot of myI saw people will get free help from
like Chalk and these organizations that helpkids that don't have any money, right,
including my own sister, she gothelped through there. So it's something

(55:09):
that we do, right, ButI think we could always grow into figuring
out better ways to give back.I'll give you an example. One of
my sisters reached out, She's like, hey, can I you know,
I want to bring over. Youknow, they're selling some cookies for the
school and this and that. AndI was like, all right, well

(55:32):
you should think about you know whatelse the girls can sell that has higher
margin that the uh you know organizationdoesn't keep ninety nine point ninety nine percent
of it and blows it on galasuh And and the girls do all the
work and they don't get anything rightfor for fundraising. There's there's different ways

(55:55):
of doing it. Uh. Andlike our my mission later is to build
like enterprises that make profit and thatprofits used for good good deeds, right,
instead of like this whole nonprofit gamewhere everything's used to pay the people

(56:17):
running it. They have crazy salariesand uh, you know a small percentage
of that goes to the actual cause. You know, those are the things
I look at. I had aguest on one of my buddies that I
met through the ten X organization,really good dude also named Victor, Mexican
guy. But he has a hugecompany, one hundred and fifty million dollar

(56:42):
construction company. And what he doesis he goes down to Mexico and he
builds, uh, you know,homes once a year for people less fortunate.
Uh. And then he has hiskids raise money, and the kids
their responsibility is to one of themhas to buy the fridge from their own

(57:07):
money, one of them has tobuy the stove with their own money.
They gotta figure it out. Uh. And his kids are like ten,
you know, So so that's that'sUh. Those are the different kind of
things that you could grow into whenit comes to like, you know,
helping others out there. Yeah,that's incredible and teaching them as well.

(57:28):
I uh that that resonates with mebecause actually when I started en ten,
it was with the idea to giveback as well. And so I'm proud
to say that we we committed todonating one percent of our net profits in
our very first year, which waslast year, and we actually exceeded that
to two percent, which was tremendousfor us. And that's the goal again

(57:49):
is this year's one percent, butI'm hoping to exceed that goal as well,
so that that certainly resonates with meand with the work that we're doing
at my company too, So Ihope you think about us as well.
That's down the road. But butyeah, so I want to just go
back now to to omniprint and whatyou're doing there, what is the future

(58:12):
hold? You're you're just doing atremendous amount of work there and in terms
of like innovating new machines, asyou said, you got the creators thing
going on where you're meeting with differentcreators, having them on your show,
You're just doing a tremendous amount growingyour team out. I'm interested in what's
to come, you know, youthe trade shows so much more. Yeah,
So our main, like I said, our main thing is to get

(58:34):
us to that vision right and it'sit's like it's big. So there's a
lot to do, so us releasingmore products, uh. Like the main
thing that I want to make surethe team is doing, uh, and
everything's built around that is leaning intoour clients because that's the only way you

(58:55):
really figure out is like are thethings you're building are they working to make
them money to help them reach theirgoals? And then if you back like
if you focus on that, you'llfigure out that when you backtrack, all
the other KPIs and all that stuff. The main leading indicator is are people

(59:20):
seeing enough value that overweighs the weightof them having their money in their pocket
versus sending it to you, youknow, And then they're they're getting a
big return for themselves, and thenthey'll buy your supplies, they'll buy your
next machine, they'll they'll do thenext thing. But if you're just churning

(59:43):
and burning clients, then that's notthat's not going to get you anywhere.
And I'll add this caveat Strategically,my main target is to build enterprise value
in this organization so that it's worthmore. And the only way organization is
worth Moore is recurring cash flow,right, and a really successful set of

(01:00:08):
clients, you know, just areally great customer base that orders nonstops and
grows with you. Right, That'show you build enterprise value. And then
lastly, a committed team that wantsto do the same. And that whole
value statement I think is so importantand people forget about so often of like

(01:00:30):
creating value for your customers, andI guess you're also doing something where you're
creating value for your employees, notjust in the customer space. But when
you said earlier where there's no egoinvolved. You don't need to be one
hundred percent owner of omniprint. Ifyou want to learn and grow within your
organization, there's an opportunity there forpartnership. I'm interested in what that one,

(01:00:52):
what's spawned that for you? Andtwo what that looks like for an
employee that wants to grow with anomniprint. Yeah, there's a couple of
reasons, right. So number one, you know, I'm really big on
taking responsibility for everything, right,And I hear in the marketplace, Oh,
you know, I can't find goodpeople. Why why don't my people

(01:01:15):
treat the business like their own?And this and that? Right? But
the reality is why should they?Right? Why should they treat it like
their own when it's not their own? Right? And and you have to
start building something. I don't havethe magic tricks, right, I don't
have the solutions yet because we're goingthrough it. But I can't tell you

(01:01:37):
from my own experience. If ifsomebody's willing to do what I do,
then then that's the key. Rightnow, My job is now showing the
path, all right? This isthis is technically the path. This is
how you grow into partnerships. Thisis how this is what that like.

(01:02:00):
Uh you know what it looks like, amount wise, and all that stuff,
all the nitty gritty uh And andI'll be rolling all that stuff out,
you know, by the middle ofthe year already. So and that
way it gives clarity because in orderfor me to grow to the next level
and fire myself, I need toI need to grow. Uh. Leaders

(01:02:23):
that that pushed me up right soI could pull them up right. And
that's the only way you do it. Yeah, I love that. And
and it's like I remember Gary Vassaying that too. He was somebody asking
that about you know, what doyou say to the employee who's not working
as hard as you? And he'sjust like nothing. You know, they

(01:02:44):
shouldn't have to work harder than me. I'm the owner of the business.
That's why no one's gonna outwork me. And it sounds like with you is
unless they're outworking you, it's it'snot there as yet. So I love
that. My final question for youis, uh, you know, you're
obviously a strong entrepreneur business leader outthere, and you know, got your

(01:03:05):
hands in a lot of different things, building your your your omniprint company,
building your residential multi family residential company, doing so much on the creative side,
and my favorite one here is isalways striving to be a better husband
to my wife. And uh,that just brings in balance for me,
of like what balance looks like forsomeone at your level, because you know

(01:03:29):
it resonates to everybody, right,Like there's time for family. And while
you're striving to be the best leaderfor your team for everybody around you,
you're still striving to be the besthusband. And so I'm interested in that
for you. Yeah, man,that's a great question, coup. I'll
tell you this. Uh. Andat some point balance doesn't exist like I

(01:03:51):
don't. I don't do balance,right. I'm pretty much like beast mode
and everything. Uh. I domore of integration, right. So my
wife works here, we go toconferences together, we're building the business together.
She handles most of the real estateportfolio stuff. And the reality is

(01:04:11):
she's got to be stronger than meto be able to hold me up when
I'm down, and a lot ofthe times we forget that, right.
So I try to be better atthat and and help her out when she's
down, right, Because to behonest, I'm kind of a big kid,

(01:04:32):
especially like I'm some examples is I'mkind of target based, right,
So when when I go for thesalt, I go for the salt,
and I'll tell you that every draweris going to be pulled out and every
every cover is going to be open. And once I got the salt,
that's that's all I wanted and needed. So now everything else is left open.

(01:04:56):
Right, So who handles that?She handles all that stuff, you
know, so so not only isshe working, but then she handles all
the all the house stuff and allthe personal stuff and all that. So
it's it's pretty nuts. So allI could do is, uh, you
know, strive to recognize and thenbe better. Yeah, and appreciate you.

(01:05:17):
And and I see that too.And you you spoke about that too,
about you and your spouse have tobe on the same page. You
know you spoke about that in yourvideos. So my my last question for
you, since I know you areyou are in takeoff mode? You are
you? You? You? Iwouldn't even say you're on the runway because
I think that that's that's behind you, but you're you're in that takeoff space.

(01:05:39):
I feel like there's so much morefor you and so many new heights
for you. So my question iswhen you look back at Victor, When
you look back you you mentioned beforeyour high school kid, and you were
giving him advice. You a yourhigh school self, you were giving him
advice. Look back at Victor nowtwenty years, thirty years from now,

(01:05:59):
what what advice are you given himtoday? Yeah? So other people have
what you want and what you need. Get around the people, Get around
the people that are doing a bigask questions, have conversations because you don't
know where it's going to lead you. But if you don't pull yourself in
play, you're never going to getthere. Put yourself in play. I

(01:06:25):
love that man, that's a greatphrase. Put yourself in play. Victor.
I want to thank you so muchfor joining us, for joining us
today, coming in from California.So cool to have you on the show,
helping me span from a local showto a national show. I got
to give a shout out to Summerwho puts this together for me and for
us, and your team all overthere at Omni Print as well. I

(01:06:46):
know you've got a big team behindthe scenes right now doing the audio to
video. You got a really coolset up there, So I really really
appreciate you and appreciate everything you've putinto this. Of course, all of
your information is going to be inthe show notes, but just for our
audio listeners out there, could youjust share with them how they can get
in touch with you, how theycould find you. Yeah. Man,
First of all, this is agreat conversation. You're an amazing interviewer.

(01:07:10):
So there's a lot that I learnedfrom good interviewers like yourself. So I'm
I'm gonna model you on some ofthat stuff. So thank you so much
for having me. The best placeis Instagram. I'm I'm posting everywhere but
Victor, Underscore, h Underscore,Penia. That's where you could find me.
I'm just posting about what I'm doingand in each of these pillars of

(01:07:34):
my life. And you know,I really don't post on theory and stuff
that I don't do or don't know, So that's the best place where you
guys can connect with me. Verycool. Thank you so much for coming
on today. I appreciate it.Thank you for listening to The Michael Esposito
Show. For show notes, videoclips, and more episodes, go to
Michael Espositoinc. Dot Com Backslash Podcast. Thank you again to our sponsor dan

(01:07:59):
Ten Insurance Services helping businesses get theright insurance for all their insurance needs.
Visit Denten dot io to get aquote that it's d N t N dot
io and remember when you buy aninsurance policy from Denten, you're giving back
on a global scale. This episodewas produced by Uncle Mike at the iHeart

(01:08:20):
Studios in Poughkeepsie. Special thanks toLara Rodrean for the opportunity and my team
at Mike Luss Busy Building