February 6, 2025 • 31 mins
Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ?
This episode explores the journey of George White, a serial entrepreneur who shares insights on the power of storytelling, creativity, and structured processes in driving business growth. Listeners will learn about the importance of customer needs, effective communication, and the cautious use of AI in marketing and manufacturing.
• The significance of creating connections in unexpected places
• Balancing creativity with technical processes in diverse industries
• The transformative impact of customer-focused solutions
• Emphasizing effective communication and process documentation
• Caution and opportunity in the integration of AI in business
• Finding wisdom in networking and unexpected paths to success
Always growing.
Benno Duenkelsbuehler
CEO & Chief Sherpa of (re)ALIGN
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, welcome to the Third Growth Officer podcast,
where we talk about all thingsgrowth, yes, even and especially
those hard parts where you shedsome skin and pick yourself up
by the bootstraps.
Hey, I'm Benno Dunkelspüler,growth Sherpa and OG hashtag
growth nerd.
We're on a mission to redefinesuccess inside and outside the
(00:23):
business, one TGO episode at atime.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm George White.
I'm a serial entrepreneur.
I'm currently the CEO of CMPaula.
I've been involved with a lotof different growth companies in
the course of my career and I'mcurrently located in Mason,
Ohio, which is a suburb ofCincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hey, george, welcome to Third Growth Option Podcast.
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, I am Benno, the host.
You and I met each other many,many years ago.
Actually, russ and I were doinga project for one of the CM
Paula divisions back then.
But you are a bit of aRenaissance guy in business.
(01:06):
I looked up your.
You know you study.
Anybody who studies politicalscience and religion and then
has a story that goes from abeer truck to US Congress to
greeting greeting cards, togifts and robots is a bit of a
(01:28):
renaissance guy in my world.
So I think I'll just introduceyour background as a driver.
You'll have to fill us in on thebeer truck, but you were a
driver for a congressmancandidate and then you were the
youngest chief of staff of a UScongressman back a few decades
(01:54):
ago.
You ran your own PR firm forfour years.
Notorious management jobs forthe last 20 years with greeting
cards, gibson, a startup, usplaying cards up with paper, and
the last eight years at the GMand CEO level.
(02:16):
And I think you and I share anability to see the unseen, what
other people don't see, and thensomehow execute it.
But I really want to talkthrough your insights, growth
lessons, and see if maybe youcan share some growth lessons
(02:37):
and insights with our viewersand listeners.
So you are currently at CMPala.
So you are currently at CMPala,ceo over a greeting card
division and a gift division anda robotics and a metal stamping
(02:59):
business.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So those are so wildly different Diversification
is good, Benno Huh.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Diversification is a good thing.
Well, diversification is verymuch a good thing, but greeting
cards and gifts requirescreativity and whimsy in
addition to business logisticalsort of left brain skills,
(03:28):
logistical sort of left brainskills, whereas metal stamping
and robotics don't reallyrequire whimsy or creativity,
but require very much a processdriven business mind.
What do you enjoy about each ofthose left brain, right brain
businesses?
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, I will say there's creativity involved in
automation systems and metalstamping.
We do come up with creativesolutions to solve customers'
problems.
I mean to me, the consistencyacross all four businesses is
addressing the needs of thecustomer.
So retailers want to sell asmuch stuff as they can, so our
job is to provide them withunique, creative product that
(04:03):
their customers will, that'llresonate with their customers
and they'll want to buy.
For our customers on therobotics side, they've got a.
Their problem is they don'thave enough labor or they've got
a process that is dangerous,dirty or repetitive and they
need a different way to do it,and so we come up with creative
solutions.
Every, every robotics solutionwe develop is a custom.
It's a custom job.
(04:24):
We are actually building piecesof an assembly line in our
warehouse and on the on themetal stamping side even though
you think about metal stampingbeing just these big machines
that are stamping out the part,it shakes the building.
Before you can do that, youhave to develop the part and
there are different ways to makethe part.
They're different and throughengine we have engineers and the
(04:45):
engineers actually develop andyou're working to create the
tools and the dyes, and part ofthat process is to create the
best tool and dye that can notonly create the best part but
enable us to produce it in themost efficient manner, and
sometimes it requires someunique things.
And then we actually assemblethem.
And so we come up with allkinds of unique ways to have our
people assemble them.
We've got little.
(05:06):
I mean you would call itautomation.
We've automated little parts ofour metal stamping plant, which
you know just on our own, tomake it a little easier to
assemble their parts.
So to me there is creativityinvolved in all, but to me it is
, at the end of the day, it'staking care of the customer's
needs and making sure youaddress those well.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All right, you got to tell me the beer truck story.
What was up with a beer truck?
Because that did not come up inthe couple of pre-calls you and
I had, but then in an emailyou're like well, it actually
started with a beer truck.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And it's not on my LinkedIn, it's not in my
LinkedIn career path Right.
But, the reason why I like totalk about the beer truck story
is you never know whereconnections are going to be made
and links are going to go.
So when I was in college atDuke University and not only was
I a poli-sci and religion, butI also was pre-med, which shows
you I really had no idea what Iwanted to do.
The summer after my sophomoreyear I came home.
(05:57):
I didn't, I didn't or no,freshman year didn't have a job,
wasn't sure what I wanted to do.
And one of my friends had afather who owned the Miller Beer
Distributorship in my area andthat was when Miller Lite was
first taken off.
Tastes great, less fillingTaken off, sales were growing
like mad.
So they needed help.
They needed people to ride onthe beer truck and to wheel beer
(06:17):
in and out of stores, and thestores could be anything from a
retailer to a bar, to arestaurant, to a supermarket.
So I did that freshman year.
They paid you in cash everyFriday.
It was fantastic.
I did that after my freshmanyear and again after my
sophomore year.
It was a great way to makemoney.
I liked beer, which is also agood thing and then I moved on.
(06:37):
Junior year I had an internshipin DC working for the Center for
Strategic and InternationalStudies.
I thought I was going to be apointy head guy in DC.
That didn't work out either.
But then when I graduated Idecided to take a year off from
school before I went to medschool.
So I was trying to figure outwhat I wanted to do and I was
into politics and thecongressional seat in my
(06:57):
hometown was open for the firsttime in many years.
So there were lots ofcandidates running.
So I talked to my father, whowas in the politics, about the
candidates and he kind of laidout what he thought and so I
kind of thought one was the guywho was likely to win and I
liked him.
So I contacted their campaign.
I said I'd be willing to workfor you.
What are you looking for?
And they said, well, we need adriver.
And I said, well, I can drive.
(07:18):
But what's the?
What's the?
What do you?
What do you need to know?
And he said, well, you reallyneed to know the congressional
district.
So I got out the congressionaldistrict and the map of the
congressional district virtuallymirrored the beer truck
distribution area.
So I actually knew and I toldthe guy.
I said you're not going tobelieve this, but I know every
store in the congressionaldistrict and I can get anywhere
in the district because Idelivered beer there and it
(07:41):
worked.
I got the job and so I becamethe driver for this candidate
who was running for Congress andhe was a 60-some-year-old World
War II vet great guy.
But I'm this 22-year-olddriving around but what happens
is it was me and him, so it'sjust the two of us in the car
for hours every day.
So I got to know him reallywell.
We hit it off really well.
So within a few weeks I washired on the staff.
(08:03):
I became his speechwriter, hisprimary spokesperson on the
campaign, and so when he won hetook me to DC with him and so my
job progression went from beertruck to campaign driver, to
working on Capitol Hill.
And then two years later, theguy who was chief of staff in
our office unfortunately passedaway and the relationship that I
(08:23):
had with the congressman wassuch that he asked me to be his
chief of staff in our officeunfortunately passed away and
the relationship that I had withthe congressman was such that
he asked me to be his chief ofstaff, and so, yeah, I was 24,
which was a pretty heady thingto do, but that gave me all
kinds of experience managingpeople, as well as customer
expectations, Because let metell you, there's no customer
like a voter.
Oh my God, when a voter callsthe office and they want
(08:44):
something, man, you listen andyou tell them yes, I will get
right on that.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yes, ma'am, yes sir.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You hear everything and they are always right, all
right.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
So that's my beer truck story.
I love it.
So you do have a knack, I think, for simplifying things.
For you know, in today'svernacular storytelling, um,
when I asked you, you know howdo you combine these left brain
(09:13):
to right brain businesses?
You know metal stamping,robotics, gifts and greeting
cards and you know, your simpleanswer was well, they both have
customers, they all havecustomers and it's about
customer.
You know, your simple answerwas well, they all have
customers and it's aboutcustomer.
You know taking care of thecustomer, or taking care of the
voter, or taking care of thecustomer.
But I think your ability tosimplify and do storytelling is
(09:41):
very it's an integral part ofyour success at the CEO level.
Has to be, I mean, do you agree?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I do agree with that and I think storytelling has
become more important as mycareer has progressed.
I think storytelling is beingable to summarize, encapsulate
and tell a story, and anybodythat works with me will tell you
to type out the story.
I'm a big believer in thewritten word story and anybody
that works with me will tell youto type out the story.
I'm a big believer in thewritten word.
Yes, before I worked on thebeer truck, I worked for a
newspaper, uh, doing localsports covers, and so I.
(10:11):
That's how I learned to type.
And I'm a big, I'm a stillstill believe.
You know, after a meeting I sitdown, I do a recap and send it
out every time.
I love that I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I and I'm the same way I to me, if it's not written
down somewhere it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
it doesn't exist it didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
If you don't have a recap, that's exactly right, and
also for me.
I cannot process what I havelearned, heard, read, seen,
unless I write it down Exactlythe same way.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And actually for me it's not even writing.
Typing is a big part for me.
I will take notes and then Itype it, and the typing of an
email for me is a way tosynthesize and summarize it.
Some of my associates at firstthey're like why are you sending
me this detailed email?
But we talked about you'll,you'll get used to it, Right.
Right, I do it for customerstoo, and that was and I learned
(11:01):
that pretty quickly that with upwith paper early on, when and I
learned that pretty quicklywith Up With Paper early on,
when we were just starting out,we had no key accounts and we'd
start meeting with these largerbusinesses and I'd meet with
them and ask them what theyneeded, what they were looking
for, and then I'd send them adetailed plan.
This is what we will do for youand this is how we're going to
do it.
And they would tell me we'venever gotten plans like this
before.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
This is what we're going to execute over the next
year and it's also a way I findto keep myself honest and to
keep my team honest and tocommunicate with the customer
and the buyer, who can thenreact to.
(11:43):
Well, I know eight out of theten sentences, but these two
sentences that's not what Imeant.
You know that was.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's a potato, potato thing, right I like, and I like
what you said about keeping youhonest, because the other thing
about sending an email is youknow I'm, this is what I
understand and this is what I'mgoing to do, and then they can
be referred back to, right,whether it's next week or next
year.
You said in this email onDecember 10th this is what
you're going to do.
This was the situation.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So let's talk a little bit about this
storytelling simplifying on theone hand and then articulating,
describing, establishingstructure and processes in a
business.
Establishing structure andprocesses in a business, which
is a very important part of youknow, I don't think you can be
(12:31):
successful as a CEO without anyprocesses.
Now different businesses havedifferent types of processes and
all that, but talk a little bitabout how you view process
development and and managingthrough process.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Maybe I completely agree on.
You got to have processes inplace and you have to have
agreement amongst all that aredoing it that, yes, this is the
process, this is what you'regoing to do.
And usually, whenever I goanywhere new, I you start by
building the process by going tothe people that are doing the
work at the bottom level,because they're the ones that
are seeing what the need is andhow to do it.
(13:07):
This is how I and usually theresponse you go well, this is
how I do it.
Why do you do it that way?
You can learn that.
Are there ways you wouldimprove it?
You can often find out from thepeople actually doing it that
there are ways I could do thisbetter, but they told me this is
the way I always do it, so Ihave to do it this way.
Well, maybe that's not right.
So and then recording that youknow, documenting what the
process is, so that everybody upand down knows what the process
(13:29):
is.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And, and I think a major part of doing processes
right is to establish them, whatI call, at the right altitude.
You don't want them to be30,000 foot, you know?
So, generalized, well, there'sa beginning, a middle and an end
, and that's the process.
No, it's.
It's more than those threethings.
And and and don't be so in theweeds that it's a hundred page
(13:55):
manual for going to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, you don't want robots working for you, you want
people to think, and so if thisis the goal and this is the way
to do it, they can all, and youalways tell them hey, if you
come up with a better way to doit, then you come tell us and we
can, we can adjust the process.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Right, Right.
What do you wish um 25 year old?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
George had known that I think that 25, I was still
working in DC, so I stayed inthat job on Capitol Hill for
five years when I was 24, I wasin the Chief of Staff
Association up there and all theguys that were my age now you
know.
I remember looking at thoseguys saying I don't want to be
doing the same thing 40 yearsfrom now that that guy's doing.
(14:38):
And so after five years Ithought the timing was good to
leave.
I got married.
My wife decided she wanted toget a phd at unc, so I decided
I'd rather live in the samestate, preferably in the same
house, with my wife.
But what I, what I didn't do, Ididn't realize until later what
, uh, and then what.
My job working on capitol hillas a chief of staff had given me
(15:00):
experience to do, which, in alot of ways, was I could have
gone out and done.
I could have managed businessesof a variety of sizes, could
have gone in at a much higherlevel than I went.
I didn't market myself well atall.
So I think the short answer forwhat I would do better is I
would have better marketedmyself when I came out of DC.
I don't regret any of theexperiences that I had.
After that, I went to work fora PR firm for like five years
(15:23):
before I went out on my own andI think if I'd had the
confidence and kind of thoughtabout it long enough, my main
objective was to get in the samearea with my wife, right that?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
was the main thing I was thinking about.
You know what?
That's not a bad way to liveyour life, right?
Hey, I love this person and Iwant to live in the same house.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
You know, preferably not in the dog house next to
that house, but you know, not bekicked out, it all worked out
and but I think my career, ifyou looked at my career path,
the projection, I think youwould say, well, you were here
and great projection.
And then when you hit, let'ssee, when I left DC, I guess I
was 27.
You went down before youstarted going back up and that's
completely my fault.
(16:04):
You went down before youstarted going back up and that's
completely my fault.
I have to own that.
But I like your take on it.
I'm going to go with my take.
I'll make sure my wife hearsthat.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Well, I could tell you that I met my wife on my
last buying trip as a buyer forPottery Barn.
My last buying trip was toMexico City, from San Francisco
to Mexico City.
We met at the airport in MexicoCity, got married eight months
later and had spent probably 18of the next 20 Christmases.
(16:38):
We would always spend in MexicoCity.
And then, five years ago, shecame back from a trip that she
had done by herself to MexicoCity.
She's like oh, there's thisplace.
Anyway, long story short, fourand a half years ago we bought a
second office in Mexico City,which is where I'm recording it
(16:58):
from today.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
But you have nicer weather in Mexico City right now
than we have in Mason Ohio.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
We do, you know.
I like to say that I loveCincinnati.
I love being in our Cincinnatihouse and office, but the tacos
and the weather are better inMexico City.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I will await my invite.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Done, stop waiting.
You're invited.
Excellent, all right.
So you wish you could havemarketed yourself better in your
late 20s, early 30s?
Yeah, and all right.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour two consumer product
(17:46):
businesses Up With Paper andGeoCentral.
Um, geo central Um, you guyshad huge growth, uh, uh, vitamin
C growth, uh, during the COVIDyears.
Right, things, things weregoing really uh well as they did
for many consumer productcompanies, obviously in the
(18:08):
early 2020s.
Um, how do you see the nextfive years?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It a?
It's a good question and, ofcourse, a lot always depends on
the economy, but the key for thetwo consumer products companies
is for them to continue tocreate products that resonate
with the consumers and continueto stay in touch with retailers.
So you're getting them whatthey need now.
Now I think GeoCentral is agreat example, because
GeoCentral was founded in 1978.
(18:37):
Cm Paula didn't buy them until30 years later.
For 30 years they werevirtually the same size, good
company, solid, same size, allthe way along, dependable.
But that's how big they were.
We had a salesperson who wehired pretty early after we
bought them Good salespersonshe's still here today, kathy
(19:00):
but she never had the productshe could sell.
She understood the consumers,but she didn't have the product.
So finally, a couple yearsbefore COVID, we hired a woman
who works for Exotica reallystrong, creative, and what they
did is, instead of selling justthe crystals as crystals and
amethyst, she actually came upwith the idea let's put the
(19:20):
crystals in a box, a reallyattractive gift box, and on that
box so the box is attractiveenough that a woman's going to
pick it up and then on that boxis information about the crystal
, what historically the crystalhas meant to people, what it's
done, how people have used itover time.
Great looking box.
So then suddenly Kathy hadsomething to sell and then at
the same time was COVID andpeople were looking for meaning
(19:41):
in the world women again inparticular and so suddenly our
sales doubled because we had aproduct that looked great,
resonated with people and was instock.
You talked about COVID.
The main promotion you wantedto have during Kobo was it was
in stock and so that was theright product at the right time.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
With the right customers and it was
merchandised and packaged right,I mean, I remember that was in
the roadmap actually, that wehad written way back.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
It took the partnership between Kathy on the
sales side and Megan on thecreative side to make that work,
because they understood eachother, they understood what each
other need.
Together they made it grow.
We did the same thing at UpWith Paper.
Up With Paper had this fabulousproduct.
I mean, it was the first pop-upcard company.
So what we said?
It was like a Broadway stageput into a greeting card, right.
Super cool, Great product.
(20:32):
Founded in the same year 1978,for the first 40 years of
existence.
35 years of existence,virtually the same size.
Then, when I got there, Ireally connected with a creative
person.
She developed the product.
I got the relationships withthe creative CM.
Paula bought us so we had themoney to actually buy a product,
get it out there and wequadrupled in size in five years
(20:54):
.
Because we mesh, you get thecreative person.
Monica was a creative person,super talented, and I went out
and found the business partnersand there you go.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Left brain and right brain together right.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
You got to have a meeting because if you just let
the creative people create, theymay create beautiful product,
but if it doesn't resonate onthe sales side, it's just going
to sit there and not sell.
And the sales people have gotto have good product to sell.
It's got to be unique, it's gotto have a reason for being in
the store and the same thing,you know, like I talked about
with parts or automation systems, we are the best automated
solution provider because weprovide customized, we listen to
(21:33):
what the customer needs and weprovide a solution to their
needs.
We're not just giving them acookie cutter program how
comfortable are you?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I?
I had warned you.
I had warned you that I wouldask some ai related questions,
um, are you comfortable talkingabout um, or just just give me
your thoughts?
So you know, ai is sort of justlike in the 1980s and 1990s.
Every conversation was aboutwell, computerize it,
(22:05):
computerize it.
And now everything is AI, ai,right.
I think people we don't reallyknow what AI is right.
There's generative AI, there'sall these different kinds.
I mean, how do you think aboutai and how are you incorporating
it in your business?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
going forward, yeah, I'm going a little bit of detail
, but I was anyway.
It says they know exactly aboutai and what's going to do for
their business.
That they're.
They're not doing the truth,that's right so I think we would
need to split into two pieces.
On the consumer product side,ai has already been helpful to
us on marketing developing copy.
It really does a great job.
(22:43):
You can say write me a salespitch for selling a crystal in
the marketplace and then you say, hey, tailor that for a
25-year-old woman.
I mean it does an amazing job.
That said, you have to edit it.
You've got to manage thatprocess.
You can't just just ask it andthen dump it on, so you've got
to be careful about what you'redoing.
You also need to be reallycareful not to upload any
information into a chat, gbt orany other AI.
(23:06):
It's proprietary because onceit's out there, it's going to
use that information to developmore intelligence that it's
going to share with others.
So that's definitely rulenumber one Don't share any
proprietary information.
So I see it as helping a lot onthe marketing side web contact,
blogs, blah, blah.
It's interesting.
On the robotic side we've talkedabout you know, can we use AI
(23:29):
to help us with our basicprogram?
Are there some basic stuff wecan do ai to help us with our
basic program?
Or there's some basic stuff youcan do and the guys don't want
to use it because we are veryworried about safety, that if ai
is doing any of the programmingyou're relying completely on it
.
The concern is that if there'sa problem my computer programmer
(23:52):
would see it, but the ai personmight not see it.
So I think there is a space forit.
But on the manufacturing side,getting into the business of
manufacturing, actual productionside, you've got to be really
careful and not only do you haveto edit it, like I was saying
on the marketing side, butyou've got to prove that it
works.
And at this point we think wecan probably generate it more
(24:14):
quickly doing it ourselves thanwe can generating it in AI and
then sitting there and having toprove it out every step of the
way.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But what I'm hearing you say is that AI is very much
part of the day-to-dayconversation with your
management team, both on theconsumer side.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Maybe not day-to-day, but we are discussing it pretty
often.
I will say the discussions thatwould.
You know.
We'll go for a couple of weeksand not talk about it all, and
then we're talking about itevery day for a week.
So you know, it just depends onand you, you know, when you're
reading the news about a leapthat's been made in progress,
then you know we talk about.
Hey, you know what?
I just read, that somebody wasusing it to do this.
Is that an application that wecan use as well?
(24:54):
But I would say our fourcompanies are not in a
leadership role and AI wouldn'texpect them to ever be.
We are monitoring it and usingit as we think is fit and as
works for us, but we're not techcompanies.
We use tech to support ourbusiness.
We're not leading techcompanies.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, yeah, I had an interesting podcast conversation
.
Actually, the podcast is goinglive.
Um, we're recording this uhmiddle of december.
It'll go live tomorrow.
Um with uh one of the seniorguys at accenture, uh, the
multi-billion billion dollarconsulting company.
Um, they are investing 10roughly fat-fingered number, 10
(25:39):
percent of their profits backinto ai related investments,
which to them is like a threebillion dollar over three year
investment and that type ofcompany, the type of business
that they're in.
that's probably what they oughtto be doing into becoming ready
for being getting ready toposition yourself in this
(26:22):
tsunami that is coming?
I mean, ai is changing fasterand faster.
You know, whatever changehappened in the last 12 months,
it'll be twice as much change inthe last 12 months.
It'll be twice as much changein the next 12 months and 10
times as much in the next threeor four years.
Right, yeah, um, so I'mstudying up on it a lot.
(26:46):
I'm reading a book, uh, nexus,um, same guy that wrote sapiens,
uh fascinating book uh right.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
all of us need to be aware and keep reading up on it
um and and adopt it when itmakes sense for us and it'll
make sense for us, differentindustries at different times.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Exactly, exactly, um, george, any, uh, any, uh,
parting words of wisdom, maybe,uh, as, maybe, as we're wrapping
up this episode, thank you,first of all, for just sharing
time with me and our listenersand viewers.
(27:25):
Thank you for taking us throughyour kind of crazy beer truck
to US Congress, to greetingcards, to robotics story and,
yeah, any parting words ofwisdom.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I think when I went back and talked about connect,
you never know where theconnections are going to occur
and I will tell you that.
The other crazy story about mycareer that happened when I went
to after working on CapitolHill, I went to work for a PR
firm and I just I literallyanswered the phone one day
because it was a call on.
The receptionist was out and itwas a company that was doing
getting into trading cards.
They had been sellingcigarettes.
(28:04):
They had, they had their saleswere going to all these stores
throughout the united states.
Cigarettes were down so theydecided to get into trading
cards as something to sell.
I answered the phone.
They said we need somebody todevelop marketing programs for
us for non-sport trading cards,which used to be a thing, then
weren't a thing and then we madeit a thing again.
That call became my ownbusiness when I left the firm
(28:25):
and opened my own business in 93.
Um, so I mean it's you justnever know where it's going to
come from you got to be.
You got to be ready to jump onthe right idea when the right
idea comes I think that's um.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I hallelujah to that right.
No, because so many people, Ithink um sort of become too
focused and maybe, you know,stay on this like one track, and
then you know they think ofthemselves as you know, a sales
person, or a product person, ora design person, or a ceo guy or
(28:58):
gal, and then that's all theydo.
But you got it.
You know when, when I was, uh,you know, early in my career, I
had a mentor who said to me look, you're a merchant and a
marketer, your job is to haveopen eyes and open ears, and
that's your job.
Yeah, just stay, keep your earsto the ground and see what you
(29:20):
know, what can you hear, whatcan you find?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
three years after that crazy phone call, I was on
cnn announcing that superman wasgoing to die.
We were releasing a tradingcard series based on it.
Right products were beingbanned in schools because they
were so popular, I mean it was,it was a great it was.
It was a ton of fun too.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
And just as you said that you moved your, you, you,
you moved your body a little bitand move it a little more so we
can see Superman behind you.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
There's Superman right there.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
It reminds me of my earlier days.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Growth lessons.
It reminds me of my earlierdays Growth Lessons with George
White and Superman.
This was great, hey, if folkswanted to reach out to you.
What's the best way to?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Our website, cmpaulacom, and my email is
gwhite at cmpaulacom.
Happy to hear from folks.
Like I said, you never knowwho's going to have an idea.
Something will spur you on.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Exactly Terrific.
Thank you so much.
It was great.
Thanks, benno, good to see youTake care.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of TGO Podcast.
You can find all episodes onour podcast page at
wwwrealign4resultscom.
(30:30):
You can find me, benno, host ofTGO podcast, there as well.
Just email Benno B-E-N-N-O atrealignforresultscom.
Let's keep growing.
Thank you.
Hey, welcome to the Third Growth Officer podcast,
where we talk about all thingsgrowth, yes, even and especially
those hard parts where you shedsome skin and pick yourself up
by the bootstraps.
Hey, I'm Benno Dunkelspüler,growth Sherpa and OG hashtag
growth nerd.
We're on a mission to redefinesuccess inside and outside the
(00:23):
business, one TGO episode at atime.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm George White.
I'm a serial entrepreneur.
I'm currently the CEO of CMPaula.
I've been involved with a lotof different growth companies in
the course of my career and I'mcurrently located in Mason,
Ohio, which is a suburb ofCincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hey, george, welcome to Third Growth Option Podcast.
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, I am Benno, the host.
You and I met each other many,many years ago.
Actually, russ and I were doinga project for one of the CM
Paula divisions back then.
But you are a bit of aRenaissance guy in business.
(01:06):
I looked up your.
You know you study.
Anybody who studies politicalscience and religion and then
has a story that goes from abeer truck to US Congress to
greeting greeting cards, togifts and robots is a bit of a
(01:28):
renaissance guy in my world.
So I think I'll just introduceyour background as a driver.
You'll have to fill us in on thebeer truck, but you were a
driver for a congressmancandidate and then you were the
youngest chief of staff of a UScongressman back a few decades
(01:54):
ago.
You ran your own PR firm forfour years.
Notorious management jobs forthe last 20 years with greeting
cards, gibson, a startup, usplaying cards up with paper, and
the last eight years at the GMand CEO level.
(02:16):
And I think you and I share anability to see the unseen, what
other people don't see, and thensomehow execute it.
But I really want to talkthrough your insights, growth
lessons, and see if maybe youcan share some growth lessons
(02:37):
and insights with our viewersand listeners.
So you are currently at CMPala.
So you are currently at CMPala,ceo over a greeting card
division and a gift division anda robotics and a metal stamping
(02:59):
business.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So those are so wildly different Diversification
is good, Benno Huh.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Diversification is a good thing.
Well, diversification is verymuch a good thing, but greeting
cards and gifts requirescreativity and whimsy in
addition to business logisticalsort of left brain skills,
(03:28):
logistical sort of left brainskills, whereas metal stamping
and robotics don't reallyrequire whimsy or creativity,
but require very much a processdriven business mind.
What do you enjoy about each ofthose left brain, right brain
businesses?
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, I will say there's creativity involved in
automation systems and metalstamping.
We do come up with creativesolutions to solve customers'
problems.
I mean to me, the consistencyacross all four businesses is
addressing the needs of thecustomer.
So retailers want to sell asmuch stuff as they can, so our
job is to provide them withunique, creative product that
(04:03):
their customers will, that'llresonate with their customers
and they'll want to buy.
For our customers on therobotics side, they've got a.
Their problem is they don'thave enough labor or they've got
a process that is dangerous,dirty or repetitive and they
need a different way to do it,and so we come up with creative
solutions.
Every, every robotics solutionwe develop is a custom.
It's a custom job.
(04:24):
We are actually building piecesof an assembly line in our
warehouse and on the on themetal stamping side even though
you think about metal stampingbeing just these big machines
that are stamping out the part,it shakes the building.
Before you can do that, youhave to develop the part and
there are different ways to makethe part.
They're different and throughengine we have engineers and the
(04:45):
engineers actually develop andyou're working to create the
tools and the dyes, and part ofthat process is to create the
best tool and dye that can notonly create the best part but
enable us to produce it in themost efficient manner, and
sometimes it requires someunique things.
And then we actually assemblethem.
And so we come up with allkinds of unique ways to have our
people assemble them.
We've got little.
(05:06):
I mean you would call itautomation.
We've automated little parts ofour metal stamping plant, which
you know just on our own, tomake it a little easier to
assemble their parts.
So to me there is creativityinvolved in all, but to me it is
, at the end of the day, it'staking care of the customer's
needs and making sure youaddress those well.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
All right, you got to tell me the beer truck story.
What was up with a beer truck?
Because that did not come up inthe couple of pre-calls you and
I had, but then in an emailyou're like well, it actually
started with a beer truck.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And it's not on my LinkedIn, it's not in my
LinkedIn career path Right.
But, the reason why I like totalk about the beer truck story
is you never know whereconnections are going to be made
and links are going to go.
So when I was in college atDuke University and not only was
I a poli-sci and religion, butI also was pre-med, which shows
you I really had no idea what Iwanted to do.
The summer after my sophomoreyear I came home.
(05:57):
I didn't, I didn't or no,freshman year didn't have a job,
wasn't sure what I wanted to do.
And one of my friends had afather who owned the Miller Beer
Distributorship in my area andthat was when Miller Lite was
first taken off.
Tastes great, less fillingTaken off, sales were growing
like mad.
So they needed help.
They needed people to ride onthe beer truck and to wheel beer
(06:17):
in and out of stores, and thestores could be anything from a
retailer to a bar, to arestaurant, to a supermarket.
So I did that freshman year.
They paid you in cash everyFriday.
It was fantastic.
I did that after my freshmanyear and again after my
sophomore year.
It was a great way to makemoney.
I liked beer, which is also agood thing and then I moved on.
(06:37):
Junior year I had an internshipin DC working for the Center for
Strategic and InternationalStudies.
I thought I was going to be apointy head guy in DC.
That didn't work out either.
But then when I graduated Idecided to take a year off from
school before I went to medschool.
So I was trying to figure outwhat I wanted to do and I was
into politics and thecongressional seat in my
(06:57):
hometown was open for the firsttime in many years.
So there were lots ofcandidates running.
So I talked to my father, whowas in the politics, about the
candidates and he kind of laidout what he thought and so I
kind of thought one was the guywho was likely to win and I
liked him.
So I contacted their campaign.
I said I'd be willing to workfor you.
What are you looking for?
And they said, well, we need adriver.
And I said, well, I can drive.
(07:18):
But what's the?
What's the?
What do you?
What do you need to know?
And he said, well, you reallyneed to know the congressional
district.
So I got out the congressionaldistrict and the map of the
congressional district virtuallymirrored the beer truck
distribution area.
So I actually knew and I toldthe guy.
I said you're not going tobelieve this, but I know every
store in the congressionaldistrict and I can get anywhere
in the district because Idelivered beer there and it
(07:41):
worked.
I got the job and so I becamethe driver for this candidate
who was running for Congress andhe was a 60-some-year-old World
War II vet great guy.
But I'm this 22-year-olddriving around but what happens
is it was me and him, so it'sjust the two of us in the car
for hours every day.
So I got to know him reallywell.
We hit it off really well.
So within a few weeks I washired on the staff.
(08:03):
I became his speechwriter, hisprimary spokesperson on the
campaign, and so when he won hetook me to DC with him and so my
job progression went from beertruck to campaign driver, to
working on Capitol Hill.
And then two years later, theguy who was chief of staff in
our office unfortunately passedaway and the relationship that I
(08:23):
had with the congressman wassuch that he asked me to be his
chief of staff in our officeunfortunately passed away and
the relationship that I had withthe congressman was such that
he asked me to be his chief ofstaff, and so, yeah, I was 24,
which was a pretty heady thingto do, but that gave me all
kinds of experience managingpeople, as well as customer
expectations, Because let metell you, there's no customer
like a voter.
Oh my God, when a voter callsthe office and they want
(08:44):
something, man, you listen andyou tell them yes, I will get
right on that.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yes, ma'am, yes sir.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You hear everything and they are always right, all
right.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
So that's my beer truck story.
I love it.
So you do have a knack, I think, for simplifying things.
For you know, in today'svernacular storytelling, um,
when I asked you, you know howdo you combine these left brain
(09:13):
to right brain businesses?
You know metal stamping,robotics, gifts and greeting
cards and you know, your simpleanswer was well, they both have
customers, they all havecustomers and it's about
customer.
You know, your simple answerwas well, they all have
customers and it's aboutcustomer.
You know taking care of thecustomer, or taking care of the
voter, or taking care of thecustomer.
But I think your ability tosimplify and do storytelling is
(09:41):
very it's an integral part ofyour success at the CEO level.
Has to be, I mean, do you agree?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I do agree with that and I think storytelling has
become more important as mycareer has progressed.
I think storytelling is beingable to summarize, encapsulate
and tell a story, and anybodythat works with me will tell you
to type out the story.
I'm a big believer in thewritten word story and anybody
that works with me will tell youto type out the story.
I'm a big believer in thewritten word.
Yes, before I worked on thebeer truck, I worked for a
newspaper, uh, doing localsports covers, and so I.
(10:11):
That's how I learned to type.
And I'm a big, I'm a stillstill believe.
You know, after a meeting I sitdown, I do a recap and send it
out every time.
I love that I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I and I'm the same way I to me, if it's not written
down somewhere it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
it doesn't exist it didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
If you don't have a recap, that's exactly right, and
also for me.
I cannot process what I havelearned, heard, read, seen,
unless I write it down Exactlythe same way.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And actually for me it's not even writing.
Typing is a big part for me.
I will take notes and then Itype it, and the typing of an
email for me is a way tosynthesize and summarize it.
Some of my associates at firstthey're like why are you sending
me this detailed email?
But we talked about you'll,you'll get used to it, Right.
Right, I do it for customerstoo, and that was and I learned
(11:01):
that pretty quickly that with upwith paper early on, when and I
learned that pretty quicklywith Up With Paper early on,
when we were just starting out,we had no key accounts and we'd
start meeting with these largerbusinesses and I'd meet with
them and ask them what theyneeded, what they were looking
for, and then I'd send them adetailed plan.
This is what we will do for youand this is how we're going to
do it.
And they would tell me we'venever gotten plans like this
before.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
This is what we're going to execute over the next
year and it's also a way I findto keep myself honest and to
keep my team honest and tocommunicate with the customer
and the buyer, who can thenreact to.
(11:43):
Well, I know eight out of theten sentences, but these two
sentences that's not what Imeant.
You know that was.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It's a potato, potato thing, right I like, and I like
what you said about keeping youhonest, because the other thing
about sending an email is youknow I'm, this is what I
understand and this is what I'mgoing to do, and then they can
be referred back to, right,whether it's next week or next
year.
You said in this email onDecember 10th this is what
you're going to do.
This was the situation.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So let's talk a little bit about this
storytelling simplifying on theone hand and then articulating,
describing, establishingstructure and processes in a
business.
Establishing structure andprocesses in a business, which
is a very important part of youknow, I don't think you can be
(12:31):
successful as a CEO without anyprocesses.
Now different businesses havedifferent types of processes and
all that, but talk a little bitabout how you view process
development and and managingthrough process.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Maybe I completely agree on.
You got to have processes inplace and you have to have
agreement amongst all that aredoing it that, yes, this is the
process, this is what you'regoing to do.
And usually, whenever I goanywhere new, I you start by
building the process by going tothe people that are doing the
work at the bottom level,because they're the ones that
are seeing what the need is andhow to do it.
(13:07):
This is how I and usually theresponse you go well, this is
how I do it.
Why do you do it that way?
You can learn that.
Are there ways you wouldimprove it?
You can often find out from thepeople actually doing it that
there are ways I could do thisbetter, but they told me this is
the way I always do it, so Ihave to do it this way.
Well, maybe that's not right.
So and then recording that youknow, documenting what the
process is, so that everybody upand down knows what the process
(13:29):
is.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And, and I think a major part of doing processes
right is to establish them, whatI call, at the right altitude.
You don't want them to be30,000 foot, you know?
So, generalized, well, there'sa beginning, a middle and an end
, and that's the process.
No, it's.
It's more than those threethings.
And and and don't be so in theweeds that it's a hundred page
(13:55):
manual for going to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, you don't want robots working for you, you want
people to think, and so if thisis the goal and this is the way
to do it, they can all, and youalways tell them hey, if you
come up with a better way to doit, then you come tell us and we
can, we can adjust the process.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Right, Right.
What do you wish um 25 year old?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
George had known that I think that 25, I was still
working in DC, so I stayed inthat job on Capitol Hill for
five years when I was 24, I wasin the Chief of Staff
Association up there and all theguys that were my age now you
know.
I remember looking at thoseguys saying I don't want to be
doing the same thing 40 yearsfrom now that that guy's doing.
(14:38):
And so after five years Ithought the timing was good to
leave.
I got married.
My wife decided she wanted toget a phd at unc, so I decided
I'd rather live in the samestate, preferably in the same
house, with my wife.
But what I, what I didn't do, Ididn't realize until later what
, uh, and then what.
My job working on capitol hillas a chief of staff had given me
(15:00):
experience to do, which, in alot of ways, was I could have
gone out and done.
I could have managed businessesof a variety of sizes, could
have gone in at a much higherlevel than I went.
I didn't market myself well atall.
So I think the short answer forwhat I would do better is I
would have better marketedmyself when I came out of DC.
I don't regret any of theexperiences that I had.
After that, I went to work fora PR firm for like five years
(15:23):
before I went out on my own andI think if I'd had the
confidence and kind of thoughtabout it long enough, my main
objective was to get in the samearea with my wife, right that?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
was the main thing I was thinking about.
You know what?
That's not a bad way to liveyour life, right?
Hey, I love this person and Iwant to live in the same house.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
You know, preferably not in the dog house next to
that house, but you know, not bekicked out, it all worked out
and but I think my career, ifyou looked at my career path,
the projection, I think youwould say, well, you were here
and great projection.
And then when you hit, let'ssee, when I left DC, I guess I
was 27.
You went down before youstarted going back up and that's
completely my fault.
(16:04):
You went down before youstarted going back up and that's
completely my fault.
I have to own that.
But I like your take on it.
I'm going to go with my take.
I'll make sure my wife hearsthat.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Well, I could tell you that I met my wife on my
last buying trip as a buyer forPottery Barn.
My last buying trip was toMexico City, from San Francisco
to Mexico City.
We met at the airport in MexicoCity, got married eight months
later and had spent probably 18of the next 20 Christmases.
(16:38):
We would always spend in MexicoCity.
And then, five years ago, shecame back from a trip that she
had done by herself to MexicoCity.
She's like oh, there's thisplace.
Anyway, long story short, fourand a half years ago we bought a
second office in Mexico City,which is where I'm recording it
(16:58):
from today.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
But you have nicer weather in Mexico City right now
than we have in Mason Ohio.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
We do, you know.
I like to say that I loveCincinnati.
I love being in our Cincinnatihouse and office, but the tacos
and the weather are better inMexico City.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I will await my invite.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Done, stop waiting.
You're invited.
Excellent, all right.
So you wish you could havemarketed yourself better in your
late 20s, early 30s?
Yeah, and all right.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour two consumer product
(17:46):
businesses Up With Paper andGeoCentral.
Um, geo central Um, you guyshad huge growth, uh, uh, vitamin
C growth, uh, during the COVIDyears.
Right, things, things weregoing really uh well as they did
for many consumer productcompanies, obviously in the
(18:08):
early 2020s.
Um, how do you see the nextfive years?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It a?
It's a good question and, ofcourse, a lot always depends on
the economy, but the key for thetwo consumer products companies
is for them to continue tocreate products that resonate
with the consumers and continueto stay in touch with retailers.
So you're getting them whatthey need now.
Now I think GeoCentral is agreat example, because
GeoCentral was founded in 1978.
(18:37):
Cm Paula didn't buy them until30 years later.
For 30 years they werevirtually the same size, good
company, solid, same size, allthe way along, dependable.
But that's how big they were.
We had a salesperson who wehired pretty early after we
bought them Good salespersonshe's still here today, kathy
(19:00):
but she never had the productshe could sell.
She understood the consumers,but she didn't have the product.
So finally, a couple yearsbefore COVID, we hired a woman
who works for Exotica reallystrong, creative, and what they
did is, instead of selling justthe crystals as crystals and
amethyst, she actually came upwith the idea let's put the
(19:20):
crystals in a box, a reallyattractive gift box, and on that
box so the box is attractiveenough that a woman's going to
pick it up and then on that boxis information about the crystal
, what historically the crystalhas meant to people, what it's
done, how people have used itover time.
Great looking box.
So then suddenly Kathy hadsomething to sell and then at
the same time was COVID andpeople were looking for meaning
(19:41):
in the world women again inparticular and so suddenly our
sales doubled because we had aproduct that looked great,
resonated with people and was instock.
You talked about COVID.
The main promotion you wantedto have during Kobo was it was
in stock and so that was theright product at the right time.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
With the right customers and it was
merchandised and packaged right,I mean, I remember that was in
the roadmap actually, that wehad written way back.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
It took the partnership between Kathy on the
sales side and Megan on thecreative side to make that work,
because they understood eachother, they understood what each
other need.
Together they made it grow.
We did the same thing at UpWith Paper.
Up With Paper had this fabulousproduct.
I mean, it was the first pop-upcard company.
So what we said?
It was like a Broadway stageput into a greeting card, right.
Super cool, Great product.
(20:32):
Founded in the same year 1978,for the first 40 years of
existence.
35 years of existence,virtually the same size.
Then, when I got there, Ireally connected with a creative
person.
She developed the product.
I got the relationships withthe creative CM.
Paula bought us so we had themoney to actually buy a product,
get it out there and wequadrupled in size in five years
(20:54):
.
Because we mesh, you get thecreative person.
Monica was a creative person,super talented, and I went out
and found the business partnersand there you go.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Left brain and right brain together right.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
You got to have a meeting because if you just let
the creative people create, theymay create beautiful product,
but if it doesn't resonate onthe sales side, it's just going
to sit there and not sell.
And the sales people have gotto have good product to sell.
It's got to be unique, it's gotto have a reason for being in
the store and the same thing,you know, like I talked about
with parts or automation systems, we are the best automated
solution provider because weprovide customized, we listen to
(21:33):
what the customer needs and weprovide a solution to their
needs.
We're not just giving them acookie cutter program how
comfortable are you?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I?
I had warned you.
I had warned you that I wouldask some ai related questions,
um, are you comfortable talkingabout um, or just just give me
your thoughts?
So you know, ai is sort of justlike in the 1980s and 1990s.
Every conversation was aboutwell, computerize it,
(22:05):
computerize it.
And now everything is AI, ai,right.
I think people we don't reallyknow what AI is right.
There's generative AI, there'sall these different kinds.
I mean, how do you think aboutai and how are you incorporating
it in your business?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
going forward, yeah, I'm going a little bit of detail
, but I was anyway.
It says they know exactly aboutai and what's going to do for
their business.
That they're.
They're not doing the truth,that's right so I think we would
need to split into two pieces.
On the consumer product side,ai has already been helpful to
us on marketing developing copy.
It really does a great job.
(22:43):
You can say write me a salespitch for selling a crystal in
the marketplace and then you say, hey, tailor that for a
25-year-old woman.
I mean it does an amazing job.
That said, you have to edit it.
You've got to manage thatprocess.
You can't just just ask it andthen dump it on, so you've got
to be careful about what you'redoing.
You also need to be reallycareful not to upload any
information into a chat, gbt orany other AI.
(23:06):
It's proprietary because onceit's out there, it's going to
use that information to developmore intelligence that it's
going to share with others.
So that's definitely rulenumber one Don't share any
proprietary information.
So I see it as helping a lot onthe marketing side web contact,
blogs, blah, blah.
It's interesting.
On the robotic side we've talkedabout you know, can we use AI
(23:29):
to help us with our basicprogram?
Are there some basic stuff wecan do ai to help us with our
basic program?
Or there's some basic stuff youcan do and the guys don't want
to use it because we are veryworried about safety, that if ai
is doing any of the programmingyou're relying completely on it
.
The concern is that if there'sa problem my computer programmer
(23:52):
would see it, but the ai personmight not see it.
So I think there is a space forit.
But on the manufacturing side,getting into the business of
manufacturing, actual productionside, you've got to be really
careful and not only do you haveto edit it, like I was saying
on the marketing side, butyou've got to prove that it
works.
And at this point we think wecan probably generate it more
(24:14):
quickly doing it ourselves thanwe can generating it in AI and
then sitting there and having toprove it out every step of the
way.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But what I'm hearing you say is that AI is very much
part of the day-to-dayconversation with your
management team, both on theconsumer side.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Maybe not day-to-day, but we are discussing it pretty
often.
I will say the discussions thatwould.
You know.
We'll go for a couple of weeksand not talk about it all, and
then we're talking about itevery day for a week.
So you know, it just depends onand you, you know, when you're
reading the news about a leapthat's been made in progress,
then you know we talk about.
Hey, you know what?
I just read, that somebody wasusing it to do this.
Is that an application that wecan use as well?
(24:54):
But I would say our fourcompanies are not in a
leadership role and AI wouldn'texpect them to ever be.
We are monitoring it and usingit as we think is fit and as
works for us, but we're not techcompanies.
We use tech to support ourbusiness.
We're not leading techcompanies.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, yeah, I had an interesting podcast conversation
.
Actually, the podcast is goinglive.
Um, we're recording this uhmiddle of december.
It'll go live tomorrow.
Um with uh one of the seniorguys at accenture, uh, the
multi-billion billion dollarconsulting company.
Um, they are investing 10roughly fat-fingered number, 10
(25:39):
percent of their profits backinto ai related investments,
which to them is like a threebillion dollar over three year
investment and that type ofcompany, the type of business
that they're in.
that's probably what they oughtto be doing into becoming ready
for being getting ready toposition yourself in this
(26:22):
tsunami that is coming?
I mean, ai is changing fasterand faster.
You know, whatever changehappened in the last 12 months,
it'll be twice as much change inthe last 12 months.
It'll be twice as much changein the next 12 months and 10
times as much in the next threeor four years.
Right, yeah, um, so I'mstudying up on it a lot.
(26:46):
I'm reading a book, uh, nexus,um, same guy that wrote sapiens,
uh fascinating book uh right.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
all of us need to be aware and keep reading up on it
um and and adopt it when itmakes sense for us and it'll
make sense for us, differentindustries at different times.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Exactly, exactly, um, george, any, uh, any, uh,
parting words of wisdom, maybe,uh, as, maybe, as we're wrapping
up this episode, thank you,first of all, for just sharing
time with me and our listenersand viewers.
(27:25):
Thank you for taking us throughyour kind of crazy beer truck
to US Congress, to greetingcards, to robotics story and,
yeah, any parting words ofwisdom.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I think when I went back and talked about connect,
you never know where theconnections are going to occur
and I will tell you that.
The other crazy story about mycareer that happened when I went
to after working on CapitolHill, I went to work for a PR
firm and I just I literallyanswered the phone one day
because it was a call on.
The receptionist was out and itwas a company that was doing
getting into trading cards.
They had been sellingcigarettes.
(28:04):
They had, they had their saleswere going to all these stores
throughout the united states.
Cigarettes were down so theydecided to get into trading
cards as something to sell.
I answered the phone.
They said we need somebody todevelop marketing programs for
us for non-sport trading cards,which used to be a thing, then
weren't a thing and then we madeit a thing again.
That call became my ownbusiness when I left the firm
(28:25):
and opened my own business in 93.
Um, so I mean it's you justnever know where it's going to
come from you got to be.
You got to be ready to jump onthe right idea when the right
idea comes I think that's um.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I hallelujah to that right.
No, because so many people, Ithink um sort of become too
focused and maybe, you know,stay on this like one track, and
then you know they think ofthemselves as you know, a sales
person, or a product person, ora design person, or a ceo guy or
(28:58):
gal, and then that's all theydo.
But you got it.
You know when, when I was, uh,you know, early in my career, I
had a mentor who said to me look, you're a merchant and a
marketer, your job is to haveopen eyes and open ears, and
that's your job.
Yeah, just stay, keep your earsto the ground and see what you
(29:20):
know, what can you hear, whatcan you find?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
three years after that crazy phone call, I was on
cnn announcing that superman wasgoing to die.
We were releasing a tradingcard series based on it.
Right products were beingbanned in schools because they
were so popular, I mean it was,it was a great it was.
It was a ton of fun too.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
And just as you said that you moved your, you, you,
you moved your body a little bitand move it a little more so we
can see Superman behind you.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
There's Superman right there.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
It reminds me of my earlier days.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Growth lessons.
It reminds me of my earlierdays Growth Lessons with George
White and Superman.
This was great, hey, if folkswanted to reach out to you.
What's the best way to?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Our website, cmpaulacom, and my email is
gwhite at cmpaulacom.
Happy to hear from folks.
Like I said, you never knowwho's going to have an idea.
Something will spur you on.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Exactly Terrific.
Thank you so much.
It was great.
Thanks, benno, good to see youTake care.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of TGO Podcast.
You can find all episodes onour podcast page at
wwwrealign4resultscom.
(30:30):
You can find me, benno, host ofTGO podcast, there as well.
Just email Benno B-E-N-N-O atrealignforresultscom.
Let's keep growing.
Thank you.
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